GIFT  OF 
Clnsp^      of   1900 


Analytical  Outline 

of 

Applied  Psychology 

as  given  by 

Harriet  L.  McCoUum 


\yr^iTtl 


Digitized  by  the  Interi 

in  2007  with  funding  from 
t       IVIicrosoft  Corooration 


http://www.archive.org/details/analyticaloutlinOOmccorich 


Lesson  No.  1. 
Lesson  No.  2. 
Lesson  No.  3. 
Lesson  No.  4. 
Lesson  No.  5. 
Lesson  No.  6. 


^"CONTENTS 

Body  and  Mind  -        -        . 

Mind  the  Architect;  Cells  the  Builders 
Nerve  Energy   "---.. 
Mind:  Its  Laws,  Powers  and  Possibilities 
Suggestion  -        -        . 


Page 
1 

-  12 
22 
32 
51 


PsychicPhenomenaand  Spiritual  Development  58 


•  Cv<»i):'.1fflitcd  19  IS 

by 

Harriet  I^.  McCollm 

Sail  Diego,  Cal. 


LESSON  No.  1 

INTER-RELATION  OF  SOUL.  MIND  AND  BODY 

The  object  of  this  course  of  inGtriictjons  is  to  learn  the  law 
of  human  life  from  every  standpoint,:  ^^;liy.?ical,  meiital,  moral, 
temperamental,  psychic  and  spiritual.  -I  «h«U, attempt  ,to  show 
you  the  effect  of  the  mind  upon  the  body^  the  body  apbh^ tile  mind, 
and  how  the  particular  temperament  of  each  individual  determines 
his  life,  his  health,  his  thought,  feeling,  emotions, — the  reaction 
which  the  world  gives  toward  him  in  a  social  and  business  way; 
showing  how  all  this  determines  the  events  of  his  life,  its  quality; 
length,  and  his  final  destiny. 

Heretofore  man  has  not  studied  man.  We  have  been  in  an 
age  of  mechanical  and  educational  specialists.  We  know  but  little 
of  the  physical  law  of  life,  and  practically  none  of  the  mental  law. 
The  nineteenth  century  specialized  on  man's  environment  and  has 
well  nigh  revolutionized  it.  The  twentieth  century  bids  fair  to 
be  given  over  to  the  study  of  human  life  itself. 

Man's  personality  constantly  functions  on  three  planes,  phy- 
sical, mental  and  spiritual.  Man's  accumulated  personality  is 
builded  by  three  laws, — they  are:  heredity,  pre-natal  culture  and 
post  natal  experience,  including  child  training,  education  and  life's 
experience.  The  modification  which  these  three  laws  have  made 
upon  your  personality  up  to  this  minute  determines  the  character 
of  your  personality. 

A  knowledge  of  heredity  will  ultimately  convince  the  world 
of  the  folly  of  allowing  the  hopelessly  diseased  or  defective,  feeble 
minded,  insane  and  criminal  classes  to  reproduce  their  kind.  A 
knowledge  of  the  pre-natal  law  will  convince  us  that  no  prospec- 
tive mother  should  be  subject  to  physical  strain,  hard  work,  mental 
strain,  anxiety, — but  that  she  should  be  protected  and  surrounded 
with  everything  lovely  and  beautiful  and  provided  with  proper 
mental  exercise.  We  shall  ultimately  realize  that  if  it  be  impos- 
sible for  the  individual  to  make  this  environment,  then  the  state 
should  provide  it  for  her. 

A  knowledge  of  psychology  as  it  applies  to  the  child  mind  will 
enable  parents  to  train  their  children  in  such  a  way  that  they 
shall  grow  up  strong  and  healthy  in  body,  with  sound,  balanced, 

886^54 


Analysis : 


2  LESSON    NO.    1 

well  unfolded  minds, — strong,  unified,  crystallized  personalities, — 
which  will  enable  them  to  meet  the  world  successfully. 

A  knowledge  of  applied  psychology  will  teach  people  how  to 
associate  with  each  other  without  friction;  enable  each  individual 
to  see  life  from  other  people's  point  of  view;  overcome  worry,  fear, 
anxiety;  avoid  anger,  jealousy  and  all  negative  and  destructive 
emotions;  m  short,  to  control  the  action  of  the  consciousness  and 
feel  as  onfej  slijould/f ^el,  ;ijid  ^^nly  so,  regardless  of  the  nature  of 
events  in  iiie.Jis.the^.ciomje  and* -go:  in  short,  to  be  healthy,  happy 
and  suSe^!2sf^ll.^'  ."".♦*  *;:.:.'*.'.-* 

A  knowledge  of  psychology  will  revolutionize  our  ideas  of 
juvenile  government,  criminal  law,  sociology  and  our  political  and 
economic  condition.  We  will  realize  that  jails  where  the  old  time 
criminal  is  associated  with  young  boys, — the  murderer,  the  horse 
thief,  the  pervert,  ex-convict  and  drunk,  associating  with  the  first- 
time  offender, — is  only  a  breeding  ground  for  the  hardened  criminal, 
and  a  school  of  crime. 

A  knowledge  of  psychology  will  enable  each  individual  to 
overcome  his  own  particular  difficulties  and  view  himself  and  all 
individuals  in  their  true  relationship  to  society.  The  quality  of 
the  sum-total  of  the  individuals  equals  the  quality  of  society  at 
large.  I  deem  it  necessary  to  educate  the  individual  to  solve  the 
problems  of  society. 

This  course  of  instructions  embodies  only  demonstrable  facts 
and  repeatable  phenomena.  It  does  not  include  the  principles  of  re- 
ligion. It  does  not  deal  primarily  with  heredity  and  pre-natal  cul- 
ture from  the  viewpoint  of  eliminating  the  unfit,  although  I  recog- 
nize the  value  of  such  consideration.  The  purpose  of  this  course  is 
to  enable  you  to  overcome  your  particular  unfitness,  no  matter  what 
its  nature  may  be,  physical,  mental  or  moral. 

Your  physical  ailment  may  be  acute  or  chronic;  your  mental 
difficulty  may  be  a  decrease  in  mental  powers — poor  mem- 
ory, lack  of  comprehension,  want  of  clear,  concise  thought.  This 
may  take  the  forms  of  worry,  hurry,  fear  unsteadiness, — and  lack 
of  purpose,  consistent  poise,  positiveness,  confidence.  Be  your  de- 
fect of  a  physical  or  mental  nature,  it  is  curable.  All  disease  and 
deficiency  looks  alike  to  the  applied  psychologist.  Every  defect  has 
a  mental  cause.    Eliminate  the  cause,  the  effect  disappears. 

This  special  lecture  will  deal  primarily  with  the  physical  re- 
quirements of  building  a  successful  personality.  Before  I  begin 
the  instructions,  I  wish  you  to  take  physical  and  mental  stock  of 


LESSON    NO.    1  3 

your  personality.  You  are  in  the  business  of  living.  A  successful 
business  man  takes  frequent  inventory  of  his  equipment.  If  he  be 
wise  and  successful  he  puts  his  best  sellers  in  the  front  window.  He 
studies  his  business,  he  learns  its  requirements,  and  in  so  far  as  his 
knowledge  permits,  he  makes  intelligent  effort  to  make  his  business 
pay.  Just  so  should  you  and  I  do  in  the  business  of  living.  Stand 
before  a  full  length  mirror,  "close-up."  Size  yourself  up.  Ask 
yourself  a  few  questions  and  answer  them. 

Is  your  skin  clear — tongue  clean — breath  pure — digestion  good 
— bowels  move  every  morning — heart  act  perfectly — muscles  firm, 
well  rounded — sleep  well  at  night — are  you  calm  at  all  times  ?  Ever 
have  a  headache — backache — stomach  ache — dark  brown  taste  in 
your  mouth  in  the  morning  ?  Become  tense  after  a  day 's  work — do 
you  ever  worry — are  you  afraid  of  anything? 

How  about  the  children?  Do  they  wet  the  bed  at  night,  rest- 
less in  their  sleep  ?  Are  they  afraid  of  the  dark,  over-sensitive,  dull 
at  school,  weary  of  school,  glad  of  vacation,  but  not  when  school 
begins  again?  Are  they  subject  to  contagions,  fevers,  colds,  stomach 
spells,  tonsilitis,  decaying  teeth  and  eye  strain? 

All  these  are  abnormal  conditions.  In  this  course  of  instruc- 
tions I  shall  attempt  to  teach  you  how  to  overcome  all  such  ab- 
normalities, both  from  the  physical  and  mental  points  of  view. 

Physical  disease  has  two  sources,  one  physical,  the  other 
mental.  The  clean  system  is  the  healthy  system,  but  the  system 
can  be  made  unclean  by  mind,  much  quicker  than  by  wrong 
methods  of  living.  Negative  and  destructive  emotions  tear  down 
the  cell  life  of  the  body,  which  causes  debris  or  filth  to  accumulate, 
which  must  be  thrown  off  through  the  eliminative  organs.  The 
breath  can  be  made  foul  by  mental  shock  or  protracted  worry, 
much^qtiicker  than  by  over  eating  and  under  exercising.  In  fact, 
so  definite  is  the  physical  reaction  to  mental  influence  that  the 
chemistry  of  the  body  is  reversed  with  abnormal  mental  attitude. 
The  most  powerful  change  which  is  possible  to  take  place  in  the 
human  system  occurs  by  power  of  the  mind  over  body,  and  under 
intensity  of  emotion  producing  a  psychological  moment,  the  chem- 
ical reaction  is  instantaneous. 

Most  people   do  not   realize   what   REAL  HEALTH   means.  2F^^^*?, 
Most  people  are  sick  or  halt  sick  tor  so  long  that  they  readjust  to  improve- 
the  condition  and  think  it  to  be  natural.     Some  even  think  it  to  inent: 
be  the  will  of  God.     Anything  less  than  an  abundance  of  vitality 
wherein  one  is  always  ambitious  and  has  the  "pep"  and  the  vim. 


4  LESSON    NO.    1 

the  snap,  the  go,  determination  and  ambition  which  spells  suc- 
cess— glad  every  morning  to  be  alive,  just  as  the  birds, — and  to 
sing  and  to  praise  God  for  the  ability  to  do  and  be;  glad  to  run 
as  the  little  child  who  runs  for  the  love  of  running; — anything 
less  than  that  is  an  accumulated  result  due  to  the  violation  of  the 
physical,  mental  or  moral  laws. 

Natural  law  is  the  visible  expression  of  divine  will.  God  evi- 
dently intended  that  his  children  should  be  happy  and  healthy, 
for  when  Nature  is  given  half  a  chance  the  body  and  mind  are 
normal,  and  the  body  never  deteriorates  except  through  a  viola- 
tion of  law. 

In  this  lesson  we  specialize  only  on  the  physical  essentials  of 
good  health,  with  the  inevitable  reference  to  the  power  of  mind. 
Man's  mind  shows  forth  in  his  temperament;  his  temperament 
determines  the  way  he  lives.  His  choice  of  food,  whether  he  chews 
his  food  or  not,  whether  he  is  intensely  active  or  sluggish  in  his 
method  of  living — all  external  physical  manifestation  is  a  visible, 
crystallized  reflection  of  mind.  The  most  striking  phases  of  mind 
determine  the  temperament. 
Primaries  To  remind  you :  The  clean  system  is  the  healthy  system.   Keep 

mount  Than  *^®  body  clean  and  you  cannot  have  a  cold,  fever,  catarrh,  rheu- 
Ultimates:  matism,  neuritis,  gout,  old  age.  Old  age  is  just  as  much  of  a  disease 
as  any  of  the  others  named.  All  such  conditions  result  from  ac- 
cumulated deposits  which  proper  methods  of  living  and  thinking 
will  eliminate.  In  this  country  man  lives  at  the  present  on  the 
average  of  about  forty- three  years.  This  is  not  half  long  enough. 
We  should  live  about  eight  times  as  long  as  it  takes  us  to  mature. 
It  takes  the  body  twenty-five  years  to  mature  and  the  mind  thirty- 
five.  A  conservative  duration  for  the  natural  length  of  life  would 
be  one  hundred  and  fifty  years.  God  has  placed  us  here  with  cer- 
tain physical  and  mental  possibilities.  Have  we  any  right  to  do 
less  than  our  best  in  attempting  to  develop  these? 
Air:  There  are  four  physical  essentials  of  good  health:  they  are 

the*  proper  use  of  air,  water,  food  and  exercise.   (Exercise  is  half 
mental.) 
How  to  Each' adult  should  have  two  cubic  inches  of  lung  capacity  for 

the^Lungs:    every  pound  of  weight — well  used. 

Each  adult  should  have  at  least  four  and  a  half  inches  chest 
expansion  and  contraction. 

Paul  von  Voeckman  of  New  York,  claims  to  have  a  chest  ex- 


LESSON    NO.    1  5 

pansion  and  contraction  of  14^/^  inches,  the  largest  of  any  man 
in  the  world. 

The  lungs  properly  used  throw  off  20,000  grains  of  poison 
daily  and  absorb  15,000  grains  of  food.  Moral — use  your  lungs 
more  and  give  your  stomach  a  rest. 

The  breath  is  the  life.  As  you  breathe,  do  you  live,  and  only 
so.  Breathe  half  enough,  you  are  half  alive.  Many  people  go 
about  the  business  of  living  with  such  a  small  lung  capacity  that 
they  are  so  nearly  dead  that  if  I  could  write  the  epitaph  on  their 
tombstones,  I  would  say:  "Died  at  25;  buried  at  60."  Don't  be 
a  ''dead  one". 

Reasons  for  a  complete  lung  development: 

1.  The  blood  circulating  through  the  body  passes  through 
the  lungs,  through  the  thin  lining  of  which  the  blood  absorbs  oxygen 
and  throws  off  carbonic  acid  gas,  a  deadly  poison  which  accumulates 
in  the  burning  process,  which  is  necessary  to  reduce  the  dead  cells 
of  the  body  to  ashes  so  it  can  be  thrown  off  through  the  eliminative 
organs.  If  this  process  is  complete,  then  this  deadly  poison  is  con- 
stantly eliminated;  if  it  is  only  half  complete,  then  the  body  is 
constantly  laboring  under  the  deadening  effect  of  this  poison.  Dull- 
ness, heaviness,  tiredness,  poor  memory,  inability  to  think  clearly, 
results,  vitality  of  body  is  lowered,  and  one  is  more  liable  to  dis- 
ease. These  sediments  left  by  imperfect  elimination  and  imperfect 
oxygenation,  cause  hardening  of  the  arteries,  rheumatism,  stiffness 
and  premature  old  age.    If  you  want  to  limber  up,  breathe. 

2.  The  quality  of  the  blood  determines  the  quality  of  the  di- 
gestive juices  from  which  it  is  drawn.  If  one  breathes  sufficiently, 
the  result  is  rich,  red,  pure  blood,  which  makes  good,  healthy  di- 
gestive juices  possible.  As  the  breath  decreases  the  quality  of  the 
blood  goes  down,  digestion  follows,  then  assimilation,  and  with 
defective  assimilation  the  strength  leaves,  vitality  is  reduced  and 
some  sort  of  illness  sets  in,  according  to  the  line  of  the  individual's 
least  resistance. 

3.  The  proper  breath  causes  a  swell  from  the  neck  down, 
over  and  including  the  abdomen.  The  body  swells  out  on  inhala- 
tion and  collapses  on  exhalation.  This  process  causes  a  gentle 
massage  of  all  the  vital  organs.  ]\Iany  people  breathe  only  from 
the  breast-pin  up,  which  causes  a  stationary  condition  of  the  liver 
and  bowels,  stomach  and  pancreas,  with  a  corresponding  inactivity 
and  sluggishness.  The  normal,  complete  breath  is  impossible  with- 
out a  proper  standing  position.     The  lungs  occupy  a  pear  shaped 


6  LESSON    NO.    1 

cavity  called  the  thorax.  A  drooping  posture  compresses  the  thorax 
and  makes  a  corresponding  pressure  on  parts  of  the  lungs.  It  is 
impossible  to  have  the  normal  lung  capacity  without  the  proper 
standing  position  which  is  indicated  by  the  lifted  chest.  The  im- 
portance of  a  properly  lifted  chest  cannot  be  overestimated  in  its 
reaction  upon  the  body  and  character.  Professor  J.  H.  Kellogg 
once  said:  "A  drooping  posture  lowers  the  stomach  from  one  to 
three  inches  and  literally  crowds  the  spleen  out  of  house  and 
home."  This  is  true  not  only  of  the  stomach  and  spleen  but  of 
all  of  the  vital  organs. 

The  reaction  upon  the  character  of  the  individual  who  stands 
and  walks  properly  cannot  be  over-estimated.  There  is  a  physical 
reaction  upon  the  cell  structure  of  the  various  centers  of  the  brain 
in  lifting  the  chest,  which  changes  the  character  from  one  of  re- 
tiring, timid,  uncertain,  negative  tendencies,  to  one  which  is  posi- 
tive, confident,  powerful  and  successful. 

Air  is  the  freest  of  all  necessities.  It  costs  not  a  cent.  Its 
proper  use  would  eliminate  all  lung  disease,  yet  one-third  of  the 
deaths  among  adults  of  this  country  is  due  to  weak,  diseased,  un- 
used lungs,  which  are  compressed  by  the  drooping  posture.  Much 
of  the  lung  space  being  ordinarily  unused,  contains  dead  air, 
which  affords  good  breeding  ground  for  disease  germs.  This  dead 
air  space,  which  should  be  used  to  oxygenize  the  blood  causes 
blood  impurity  which  is  the  cause  of  colds,  pneumonia  and  tuber- 
culocis.  Man  cannot  maintain  consciousness  without  air  more 
than  4  minutes,  so  necessary  is  it  to  his  bodily  welfare.  He  can 
do  without  water  approximately  four  days,  without  food,  approxi- 
mately forty  days,  yet  the  idea  of  the  necessity  of  these  three  has 
been  directly  reversed.  Man  is  willing  to  spend  a  good  percentage 
of  his  time  getting  enough  to  eat.  He  drinks  if  he  really  recog- 
nizes the  need  of  water,  but  has  never  cared  one  whit  about  his 
supply  of  air,  and  the  last  generation  thought  it  wise  to  close  the 
windows  as  ''night  air  Avould  make  one  sick."  Today  we  know 
that  houses  should  be  built  with  special  attention  to  ventilation, 
both  in  homes  and  public  gathering  places.  The  outdoor  schools 
of  Chicago  and  Kansas  City  recently  established  for  defective 
children  have  so  raised  their  standard  that  they  have  many  times 
excelled  the  so-called  normal  children.  If  this  fresh  air  is  good 
for  our  defectives,  why  would  it  not  raise  the  standard  of  the 
normal  child?  Physicians  are  now  recognizing  that  there  is  no 
cure  for  tuberculosis  except  outdoor  living.     The  new  realization 


LESSON    NO.    1  7 

is  the  value  of  prevention  rather  than  cure,  to  which  all  the  at- 
tention has  previously  been  given.  ''LIFT  UP  YOUR  CHEST 
AND  BREATHE  A  BIT." 

You  can  go  longer  without  water  than  you  can  without  air,  Water: 
but  ultimately  it  is  just  as  necessary  as  air.  Few  people  realize 
the  necessity  of  its  proper  use  for  internal  cleanliness.  Internal 
cleanliness  is  much  more  necessary  for  health  than  external,  yet 
many  people  are  very  particular  about  their  daily  bath  for  cleanli- 
ness, the  inside  of  whose  body  is  reeking  with  filth.  Would  you 
have  an  attractive,  charming,  magnetic,  clean,  wholesome,  lovely 
body?  Then  keep  it  clean  on  the  inside  with  the  use  of  an  abund- 
ance of  water.  Here  are  a  few  reasons  why  we  need  water,  about 
two  quarts  a  day,  to  carry  on  the  business  of  living  successfully 
and  keeping  the  body  balanced. 

Every  function  of  the  body  requires  water  for  its  operation; 
70  per  cent  of  the  body  is  water.  Imagine  what  you  would  look 
like  if  you  should  happen  to  be  run  through  a  wringer. 

Every  act  requires  some  water,  even  the  winking  of  the  eye. 

When  food  is  taken  into  the  mouth  the  saliva  flows,  the  larg- 
est percentage  of  which  is  water;  when  taken  into  the  stomach, 
the  gastric  juice  flows, — mostly  water.  Water  is  needed  to  make 
the  secretions  of  the  liver,  the  pancreas  and  the  bowels;  it  is 
needed  by  the  kidneys  and  the  skin,  (both  eliminative  organs, — 
the  skin  containing  28  miles  of  "pore "-sewerage). 

We  recognize  the  need  of  water  for  the  growth  and  develop- 
ment of  the  animal  and  the  plant.  Plants  become  soft  and  flabby 
without  it;  so  the  human  tissue.  Without  water  the  body  be- 
comes filthy,  for  the  sub-conscious  mind,  which  is  the  body  builder, 
is  a  creature  of  habit.  It  readjusts  itself  to  bad  conditions.  It 
will  keep  the  body  alive  if  it  can.  It  must  have  water;  if  it  be 
possible  to  have  it  from  the  normal  source,  well  and  good,  but  if 
not,  it  will  extract  what  water  it  can  from  the  contents  of  the 
bowels,  and  that  which  is  sewage  is  drawn  back  into  your  circula- 
tion and  the  saliva  in  your  mouth  is  modified  by  it. 

If  an  engineer  be  running  an  engine  and  attempts  to  run  it 
one  hundred  miles  on  water  enough  to  run  it  only  fifty  and  his 
engine  dries  up  and  burns  up,  and  he  loses  his  job  as  an  engineer, 
you  would  say  it  served  him  right ;  he  should  have  known  his  busi- 
ness and  have  done  the  right  thing.  Just  so  with  you.  You  are 
the  engineer.  Your  body  is  the  engine,  and  if  through  insufficient 
water  you  ajlow  this  body  to  dry  up,  you  lose  your  job  as  an  en- 


8  LESSON    NO.    1 

gineer  through  disease  and  premature  death.  For  perfect  diges- 
tion, assimilation  and  elimination  you  need  two  quarts  of  water 
daily.  Distilled,  aeriated  water  is  the  best,  and  should  be  used 
especially  by  those  people  who  are  suffering  from  hardening  of 
the  arteries,  stiffness  or  old  age. 
Daily  On  arising  in  the  morning  drink  from  one  to  two  glasses  of 

Regime:  water,  hot  or  cold  according  to  desire.  Then  lie  down  flat  on  the 
back,  no  pillow  under  the  head,  on  a  hard  surface ;  draw  the  knees 
up  a  trifle  to  relieve  the  strain  on  the  vital  organs;  place  the  flat 
of  the  hand  over  the  stomach,  close  the  eyes,  center  the  attention 
on  the  stomach,  and  draw  in  gently,  then  push  out  gently.  Aid 
what  is  necessary  with  the  hands  to  gain  the  use  of  the  muscles 
over  the  stomach.  Continue  two  or  three  times  to  begin  with,  then 
increase  gradually  as  you  become  accustomed  to  the  exercise. 
Then,  tense  the  muscles  over  the  abdoman,  placing  the  flat  of  the 
hands  over  the  abdomen,  make  gentle  but  firm  pressure,  kneading 
in  a  circular  motion,  continuing  the  resistance  with  the  abdominal 
muscles.  This  should  be  repeated  two  or  three  times,  gradually 
increasing  as  the  muscles  of  the  abdomen  tone  up.  Now  make  an 
effort  at  securing  a  complete  bowel  movement.  Be  very  diligent 
and  regular  about  this  part  of  the  daily  regime,  as  most  of  the 
cases  of  constipation  are  caused  from  carelessness  and  irregularity. 
Next,  rub  down  and  air  bath,  using  a  flesh  brush  or  vegetable  sponge 
until  the  skin  is  pink.  Next  take  your  exercises,  then  any  kind 
of  water  bath  which  is  agreeable.  The  cold  bath  is  good  for  only 
those  who  react  quickly  and  is  harmful  for  one  who  only  shivers 
and  remains  cold.  Use  your  good  judgment  about  this.  Get  into 
your  clothes  quickly.  Now,  outdoors  thirty  minutes  walking  or 
running  as  your  bodily  condition  permits,  never  allowing  the 
heart  beat  or  circulation  to  go  above  real  comfort.  Go  alone. 
Regulate  your  own  speed.  Then  do  as  you  please  until  1 :00  P.  M. 
and  take  a  30  minute  nap  if  possible.  It  is  good  for  any  of  us  to 
break  the  day  in  two. 


Food:  This  is  a  subject  of  universal  interest.     Americans  are  a  race 

of  dyspeptics  caused  by  improper  eating  and  hurry  and  worry. 
We  shorten  our  lives  and  reduce  our  efficiency  by  our  methods  of 
eating.  To  live  right  will  be  easy  for  some  of  you,  a  difficult  thing 
for  others,   according  to  your  temperament,   but   after  you   have 


LESSON    NO.    1  9 

learned  how  to  Jive  USE  YOUR  WILL  POWER.  For  it  will  be 
a  choice  between  good  health  and  semi-invalidism. 

Again,  the  cause  of  all  physical  disease  is  an  accumulated 
filth;  it  is  an  abnormal  condition,  for  the  natural  tendency  is  to- 
ward health.  We  have  a  health  army  in  our  system,  the  white 
blood  corpuscles.  Disease  germs  are  their  favorite  diet.  Scientists 
prove  this  by  injecting  disease  into  the  circulation.  Immediately 
an  alarm  seems  to  be  sent  out  all  over  the  body  and  all  the  white 
blood  corpuscles,  self  locomotive,  travel  rapidly  toward  the  spot 
from  whence  the  alarm  came.  Imagine  the  white  blood  corpuscle 
on  the  inside  of  the  w^all  of  the  blood  vessel,  the  disease  germ  on 
the  outside.  The  white  corpuscle  sends  forth  a  little  tendril, 
threadlike,  oozes  its  way  through  the  wall  and  leaves  no  hole 
through  which  it  has  gone.  It  pounces  upon  the  disease  germ  and 
devours  him.  When  we  live  right,  keep  our  bodies  clean,  disease 
germs  are  not  so  numerous  but  that  our  health  army  can  take  care 
of  them,  but  accumulated  filth  means  prosperity  for  the  disease 
germs;  they  become  so  numerous  that  the  white  blood  corpuscles 
founder  in  their  efforts  to  serve  us  and  they  in  turn  die,  their  bodies 
become  added  debris.  The  situation  becomes  alarming,  a  draft  sys- 
tem is  inaugurated,  all  cells  all  over  the  body  which  can  be  spared 
are  called  into  service  to  help  the  regular  army  oust  the  invader, 
and  the  extra  excitement  and  activity  causes  the  heat  called  fever. 
When  it  gets  too  hot  the  patient  dies.  Keep  your  system  clean  and 
you  need  never  have  any  fear  of  disease  germs.  One  of  the  most 
potent  ways  is  the  proper  method  of  eating. 

You  may  select  one  or  two  or  three  methods  of  properly 
nourishing  your  body,  or  combine  all  of  them  together  if  you  wish 
definite  and  quick  results.  For  those  suffering  ■  from  catarrh  and 
colds,  rheumatism  and  kindred  ailments,  speedy  improvement  will 
be  observed  by  leaving  off  all  meat,  fish,  eggs  and  cheese,  for  these 
are  the  foods  which  contain  nitrogen,  which  is  always  present  in 
such  ailments.  Or,  you  may  continue  to  eat  what  your  appetite 
calls  for,  providing  you  adopt  the  extreme  methods  advocated  many 
years  ago  by  Horace  Fletcher.  It  will  do  you  good  to  read 
Fletcher's  books  on  putrition,  especially  the  one  called  ''The  New 
Epicure  and  Glutton". 

Horace  Fletcher's  history  is  extremely  interesting  and  profit- 
able. At  the  age  of  45  he  was  a  confirmed  invalid,  suffering  from 
incurable  chronic  ailments.  He  was  over  weight,  short  of  breath, 
and  life  insurance  companies  refused  him  as  a  risk.     One  summer 


10 


LESSON    NO.    1 


while  in  Chicago,  by  accident  he  began  to  chew  his  food  and  see 
how  many  fine  flavors  he  could  extract  from  it.  After  a  couple 
of  weeks  of  this  extra  chewing,  he  noticed  that  he  had  more  en- 
durance and  freer  breath.  After  six  months  of  effort  he  got  down 
to  business  on  real  Fletcherism,  and  within  five  years  he  had  not 
only  cured  himself  but  declared  that  he  had  more  endurance  than 
any  man  living.  His  statements  attracted  the  attention  of  food 
specialists  all  over  this  country  and  Europe  and  he  was  invited 
to  Yale  University  to  compete  with  their  finest  athletic  team  which 
was  composed  of  young  men,  the  pick  of  their  kind,  who  had  been 
eating  at  a  training  table,  food  which  was  supposed  to  produce 
the  greatest  endurance, — who  had  been  gradually  brought  up  in 
exercises  to  produce  the  greatest  resistance  and  endurance. 
Fletcher  was  challenged  to  go  through  for  eight  consecutive  days 
every  exercise  which  these  men  went  through.  He  was  allowed 
to  eat  what  he  wanted,  also  such  quantities  as  he  desired,  and 
Horace  Fletcher  did  then  something  that  has  never  been  done 
before  or  since.  He  went  through  for  eight  days  every  exercise 
through  which  those  trained  athletes  went,  doubling  many  of  their 
endurance  tests  and  had  no  reaction  in  sore  muscles,  lost  not  a 
pound  of  weight,  was 'not  even  tired;  and  this  on  one-half  the 
food  that  had  formerly  been  thought  necessary  to  maintain  life 
without  a  stroke  of  work.  Scientists  of  the  day  said  Fletcher  was 
a  freak.  They  were  afraid  to  try  the  method  on  their  students, 
but  one  professor  who  had  been  suffering  from  rheumatism,  un- 
able to  get  relief  tried  it  out,  at  first  gingerly,  and  soon  noticed 
improvement.  From  that  day  to  this  only  a  few  thousand. Americans 
have  tried  real  Fletcherism,  but  everyone  who  has  tried  Fletcher's 
method  has  improved  to  the  degree  to  which  they  have  employed 
the  principle.  At  Battle  Creek  Sanitarium  they  wrote  a  chewing 
song  and  chewed  their  way  to  health.  Professor  Kellogg  said  he 
was  ashamed  that  he  had  never  thought  of  it  before.  You  need 
never  have  indigestion  any  more  if  you  are  willing  to  Fletcherize. 


The  Rules 
of  This 
System : 


1.  Chew  until  the  taste  is  gone.  2.  Never  eat  unless  hungry. 
Real  hunger  is  not  that  all  gone  feeling  immediately  after  the 
accustomed  meal  time.  Be  sure  it  is  genuine  hunger.  3.  Eat 
what  appetite  calls  for.  Take  a  deliberate  mental  attitude.  Don't 
hurry.  Enjoy  your  food.  Do  not  eat  when  tired  or  hurried. 
Save  some  of  the  appetite  until  the  next  meal. 


LESSON    NO.    1  11 

There  is  a  difference  of  opinion  among  dieticians,  as  to 
whether  two  or  three  meals  a  day  are  best.  I  should  say  that 
generally  two  meals  are  sufficient  unless  one  be  doing  actual 
manual  labor  for  long  hours.  Many  people  prefer  no  breakfast, 
others  never  get  used  to  doing  without  it.  So  use  your  judgment ; 
but  if  you  must  have  a  third  meal,  make  it  raw,  unsweetened  fruit. 

There  is  a  reason  for  all  of  this.  The  first  stage  of  digestion 
should  take  place  in  the  mouth.  That  is  the  alkaline  reaction. 
The  second  stage  takes  place  in  the  stomach,  the  acid  reaction. 
The  chemical  change  in  the  mouth  causes  the  sensation  called  taste. 
When  this  is  incomplete  that  part  of  the  digestive  process  is  not 
finished.  With  complete  mastication  the  food  practically  all  goes 
into  the  stomach  in  the  same  condition,  which  automatically  solves 
the  problem  of  the  choice  and  combination  of  foods.  The  true 
Fletcherite  soon  regains  the  natural  ability  to  choose  the  food  that 
is  needed  for  body  building.  The  chemistry  of  the  saliva  in  the 
mouth  varies  with  different  kinds  of  foods  of  the  true  Fletcherite. 
That  of  the  individual  who  bolts  his  food  remains  stationary. 
With  the  first  process  of  digestion  properly  performed  the  stom- 
ach takes  care  of  the  second  easily.  The  food  then  goes  into  the 
small  intestines  where  it  is  prepared  to  become  nourishment  for 
the  body;  but  if  the  first  stage  is  not  properly  performed,  then 
the  second  cannot  be,  and'  when  the  food  arrives  at  the  small  in- 
testines Nature  makes  her  last  effort  to  reduce  it  to  where  it  will 
be  nourishment  for  your  body.  In  so  doing  there  is  a  fauna  or 
putrefaction  germ,  or  rotting  germ  if  you  please,  which  acts  upon 
the  food  and  partially  decomposes  it.  This  process  manufactures 
a  cheap  quality  of  alcohol.  You  have  your  own  private  internal 
distillery  and  the  quality  of  that  alcohol  which  you  manufacture 
causes  the  very  stylish  ailment  called  ''auto  intoxication."  Leave 
off  the  auto,  it  is  a  disgrace.  Prefixing  the  auto,  we  get  much  sym- 
pathetic attention.  The  day  is  coming  when  both  kinds  of  intoxi- 
cation will  be  looked  at  and  treated  alike.  In  the  future  that  man 
or  woman  who  so  lives  as  to  cause  his  body  to  deteriorate  will  be 
treated  as  any  other  criminal.  The  gas  in  the  stomach  and  bowels 
which  is  so  common  is  caused  primarily  by  want  of  thorough  masti- 
cation. 

The  third  choice  of  remedy  for  indigestion  is  to  reduce  the 
quantity  of  food  to  one-half  and  double  the  outdoor  exercise. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  action  of  the  stomach  and  the 
chemical  quality  of  the  gastric  juice  and  the  contents  of  the  stomach 


12  LESSON    NO.    1 

are  largely  determined  by  the  mind.  Experiments  have  been  con- 
ducted upon  a  house  cat  wherein  bismuth  has  been  placed  in  its 
food  which  enables  the  observance  of  the  action  of  the  stomach  with 
the  X-Ray.  The  cat  is  fed.  It  lies  down  to  sleep.  The  action  of 
the  stomach  is  normal.  The  gentle  churning  process  continues ; 
but  a  dog  suddenly  is  brought  into  the  room,  and  every  hair  on 
the  cat's  back  stands  on  end,  a  fight  is  on,  the  stomach  ties  up  into 
a  knot,  the  cat's  digestive  process  ceases,  and  sometimes  it  takes 
hours  for  the  action  to  resume.  The  same  law  applies  to  you  and 
me.  The  contents  of  the  stomach  are  converted  into  a  veritible 
poison  through  adverse  emotions.  Moral :  Never  have  an  unpleasant 
argument  with  your  friends  when  your  stomach  is  full,  and  since 
the  stomach  contains  food  most  of  the  time,  you  never  can  afford  it. 


LESSON  No.  2 

MIND  THE  ARCHITECT:  CELLS  THE  BUILDERS 

]\Ian  is  a  triune  being,  physical,  mental  and  spiritual.  He  is 
therefore  subject  to  three  types  of  law.  There  are  certain  definite, 
fixed,  immutable  laws  by  which  the  body  operates.  To  meet  the 
physical  requirements  of  good  health,  obey  the  law  as  laid  down  in 
the  first  lesson.  But  mind  reacts  upon  the  body  and  the  body  re- 
acts upon  the  mind.  A  depressed  mind  depresses  the  action  of  the 
vital  organs,  the  liver  becomes  sluggish,  the  stomach  and  bowels  in- 
active, the  heart  slows  down,  and- the  general  feeling  of  debility 
results.  Hereafter,  we  divide  our  subject  into  three  phases,  three 
types  of  requirement  for  human  efficiency.     They  are 

Food,  Exercise,  Mental  Influence: 

Under  FOOD  I  class  all  material  that  is  taken  in  from  with- 
out to  build  up  by  means  of  the  vital  force  from  within :  the  things 
we  eat,  the  water  we  drink,  the  air  we  breathe,  the  magnetism  from 
the  sun 's  ray.  But  mind  is  the  designer  and  builder  of  this  physical 
house  which  you  and  I  inhabit.  Exercise  is  the  tool  which  the  soul 
uses  to  distribute  and  apply  the  building  material.  Exercise  is 
half  mental,  half  physical.  Again,  MIND  IS  THE  BUILDER. 
The  means  which  mind  uses  to  design  and  build  this  house  are  the 
sensations,  the  impressions  and  emotions  which  enter  the  con- 
sciousness from  within  and  without  through  auto-suggestion  and 
suggestion. 

At  this  place  I  am  asked,  Have  you  any  place  for  drugs  in  your 
philosophy?  Yes.  To  explain  the  effect  of  drugs  upon  the  body 
I  outline  a  metaphysical  universal  principle.  It  becomes  evident 
to  the  advanced  student  that  everything  that  is  in  the  phenomenal 
realm  is  a  rate  and  character  of  vibration:  all  vibration  is  the  re- 
sult of  the  action  of  consciousness  in  the  form  of  mental  operation, 
conscious,  sub-conscious  or  super-conscious.  The  vibration  of  some 
substances  is  very  rapid,  while  with  others  they  are  much 
slower.  There  being  an  affinity  between  two  substances, — when 
placed  together  they  tend  to  neutralize  each  other,  equalize, 
and  take  on  a  common  rate  of  vibration,  like  the  magnet  and  a 
piece  of  steel.  Strychnine,  for  instance,  is  a  poison  for  the  human 
body.     This  is  due  to  the  fact  of  its  super-rapidity  of  action. 


14  LESSON    NO.    2 

Taken  into  the  stomach  it  begins  to  neutralize  with  the  vibratory 
action  of  the  body  cells  and  in  that  process  the  strychnine  slows 
down  and  the  cells  speed  up.  If  the  activity  of  the  cells  of  the 
body  becomes  too  great,  death  results.  In  sickness,  a  physician 
finds  either  a  sub-normal  condition,  too  slow,  or  a  fever  condition, 
too  rapid.  He  attempts  always  to  give  the  drug  which  will  raise 
or  lower  the  vibratory  action  as  the  need  may  demand.  The 
up-to-date,  applied  psychologist  does  not  discard  any  of  the 
therapeutic  agencies.  We  believe  in  giving  all  sides  of  Nature  a 
chance  and  we  recognize  all  phases  of  the  manifestation  of  law. 
But  the  day  is  almost  at  hand  when  everything  that  is  accom- 
plished now  by  the  use  of  drugs  can  be  accomplished  by  mind 
power  without  any  detrimental  reaction,  which  is  so  common  in 
the  use  of  drugs.  The  applied  psychologist  who  would  ignore  the 
necessity  of  right  living  has  not  the  broad  vision.  The  physician 
who  is  unable  to  recognize  the  power  of  mind,  faith,  confidence  in 
his  drugs  and  methods  is  also  restricted  in  his  comprehension. 
The  body  is  mechanically  builded  and  may  get  out  of  plumb  which 
causes  pressure  on  nerves  and  muscles  and  therefore  osteopathy 
and  chiropractic  and  massage  treatments  all  have  their  rightful 
place.  All  methods  of  therapy  which  do  anybody  any  good  serve 
their  purpose.  All  are  steps  on  the  way,  but  the  ultimate  recog- 
nition will  be  the  creative  power  of  concentrated  thought. 

I  have  said  that  MIND  IS  SUPREME.  The  scriptures  say, 
"As  a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is  he."  The  psychologist  says: 
*'As  a  man  thinketh  in  his  soul  or  subconscious  mind,  so  is  he,  and 
so  does  he  constantly  become,  in  body,  mind,  character,  tempera- 
ment, morality,  psychic  nature  and  spiritual  insight."  Christ  con- 
stantly emphasized  the  power  of  mind,  the  control  of  self  through 
faith.  To  the  woman  he  said:  "Thy  faith  hath  made  thee  whole.*' 
To  the  mother:  "Go  thy  way;  thy  faith  hath  saved  thee."  And 
when  He  said,  "I  have  not  seen  such  faith,  no,  not  in  Israel,"  a 
miracle  transpired. 

The  Master  was  able  to  control  substance  external  to  self; 
He  walked  on  the  water.  When  Peter  saw  Him,  something  tran- 
spired in  his  consciousness  which  enabled  him  to  w^alk  three  or  four 
steps  on  the  water,  then  he  w^ent  down.  Upon  the  approach  of  the 
Master,  Peter  was  told  in  substance  that  he  could  have  walked 
on  the  water  if  he  had  only  thought  so.  The  applied  psychologist 
does  not  claim  that  surface  thinking  will  make  it  so,  but  that 
there  may  be  a  soul  realization  attained,  which  will  make  it  pos- 


LESSON    NO.    2  15 

sible  for  you  and  me  to  accomplish  what  the  Master  so  easily  dem- 
onstrated. The  Christ-life  is  a  perfect  demonstration  of  absolute 
control  over  physical  substance.  He  created  food;  He  calmed  the 
winds  and  waves;  He  cured  disease;  He  raised  the  dead;  all  by 
mind  power.  I  can  make  no  statements  in  this  course  of  instruc- 
tions which  could  seem  more  radical  than  the  common  expres- 
sions in  the  New  Testament  scriptures. 

The  farthest  back  a  psychologist  or  metaphysician  can  go  is  to 
assume  the  eternal  existence  of  infinite  intelligence.  I  call  it 
universal  consciousness;  the  Christian  call  it  God.  The  psycholo- 
gist attempts  to  know  God  through  the  study  of  the  operation  of 
His  law,  with  the  ultimate  purpose  of  gaining  a  working  knowl- 
edge of  law.  To  know  God's  will  and  comply  with  it  should  be 
the  aim  and  purpose  of  all  scientists  and  religionists. 

God  has  ordained  a  wonderful  way  of  body  building.  When 
this  law  is  understood  it  is  seen  that  man  is  in  very  truth  con- 
stantly creating  his  own  destiny.  Each  individual  is  what  he  is 
because  he  has  thought  as  he  has,  consciously  and  subconsciously. 
Briefly  summed  up,  the  thoughts  of  today  become  the  dreams  of 
tonight;  the  actions  of  tomorrow,  and  the  character  of  the  future.* 
The  thought  of  all  time  accumulating  crystallizes  and  determines 
the  very  quality  of  the  tissue  of  the  body,  its  form,  the  cast  of 
the  countenance,  the  quality  and  color  of  the  hair,  the  shape  of 
the  body,  the  way  one  walks  and  stands,  from  the  crown  of  the 
head  to  the  sole  of  the  feet,  to  the  core  of  your  being.  Your  body 
is  a  crystallized  substance  builded  by  the  action  of  mind,  a  mental 
mould  into  which  as  it  were  this  body  has  been  poured.  Every 
physical  tie-up  has  a  corresponding  kink  in  the  consciousness ; 
every  physical  ailment  has  a  mental  ailment  back  of  it. 

My  purpose  in  this  lesson  is  to  teach  you  the  physiological 
change  which  takes  place  under  mental  influence,  and  the  process 
by  which  this  change  takes  place.  This  can  best  be  learned  through 
a  study  of  THE  CELL  THEORY.  The  cell  theory  was  first  so- 
called  by  scientists  because  it  was  a  theory.  Today  it  is  a  dem- 
onstrated fact.  All  school  physiologies  teach  the  cell  theory  from 
a  physical  point  of  view,  but  as  yet  the  instructions  concerning 
the  causal  side  of  cell  life  has  not  been  included  in  the  school  cur- 
riculum.   It  is  the  psychic  law  of  the  cell  which  we  will  study. 

As  a  basis  for  study  of  the  cell  theory  the  amoeba  has  been  a 
convenient  organism.  Here  are  a  few  salient  facts  in  regard  to 
the  amoeba:     It  is  a  water  organism,  one-celled,  composed  of  a 


16  LESSON    NO.    2 

center  or  nucleus  with  a  surrounding  body.  It  reproduces  its 
kind  by  division;  it  starts  out  small,  has  a  voracious  appetite,  eats 
large  quantities  for  its  size,  grows  rapidly,  and  as  it  approaches 
maturity  its  nucleus  can  be  observed  to  begin  to  cut  in  two,  with 
a  corresponding  division  of  the  body.  This  process  continues  until 
at  maturity  the  separation  is  complete,  and  where  there  was  one 
mature  amoeba,  there  are  now  two  young  ones.  Note  this  law 
of  the  single  celled  amoeba,  for  it  is  a  universal  law  in  all  single 
celled  life.  It  is  youth,  growth,  maturity,  reproduction  and  youth 
again,  not  OLD  AGE.  Question:  If  the  law  of  the  unit  of  your 
body  is  such,  then  why  does  not  the  same  law  apply  to  the  sum 
total  of  the  complex  organism?  Why  old  agef  Some  more  facts 
about  the  amoeba :  It  is  intelligent  enough  to  care  for  its  personal 
needs;  it  recognizes  food  and  rejects  that  which  is  unfit.  In  that 
I  sometimes  say  it  is  wiser  than  some  folks  whom  I  know.  It 
seems  to  have  a  common  consciousness,  that  is,  each  individual  in 
a  community  of  amoebae  seems  sometimes  to  recognize  the  air  or 
common  purpose  of  the  whole;  for  instance,  all  may  be  observed 
at  times  to  be  chasing  one  of  their  number,  much  as  children  play 
at  black  man  on  the  school  grounds.  Whether  they  be  playing  a 
game  just  as  children,  or  whether  a  tragedy  is  being  enacted  and 
one  of  their  number  has  committed  an  offense  and  each  is  a  self- 
appointed  policeman  to  catch  the  offender,  we  know  not,  but  the 
point  is,  the  amoebae  have  more  than  a  recognition  of  their  own 
existence;  they  have  some  sort  of  intelligence.  The  amoeba  has 
the  ability  to  adjust  its  body  to  a  new  condition,  just  as  you  and  I. 
If  we  go  north  and  live  in  a  cold  country  our  body  readjusts  to 
resist  the  change;  then  go  to  a  warm  climate,  a  new  adjustment 
takes  place.  Just  so  with  the  single  celled  life.  Place  an  amoeba 
in  water  containing  acetic  acid;  it  will  build  a  protecting  shell 
about  its  body,  and  continue  to  live  unharmed  under  such  condi- 
tions. An  amoeba  wishing  to  come  up  out  of  the  water  inflates  a 
gas  bag;  wishing  to  lower,  it  deflates  it. 

The  salient  points  in  regard  to  the  amoeba  are  common  to  all 
single  celled  life,  whether  they  compose  the  bodies  of  vegetable, 
animal  or  human.  It  has  become  evident  to  the  advanced  student 
that  each  of  the  billions  of  cells  which  compose  the  bodies  of  any 
of  these  is  a  separate,  independent,  living,  intelligent  entity,  which 
comes  into  existence  for  a  purpose,  lives  out  its  purpose,  going  on 
to  another  sphere,  just  as  you  and  I. 

We  were  told  as  children  that  the  body  changed  once  every 


LESSON    NO.    2  17 

seven  years;  we  now  know  that  it  changes  much  more  rapidly.  In 
fact,  I  believe  the  body  changes  very  nearly  wholly  each  year; 
the  softer  substances  of  the  body  change  decidedly  every  thirty 
days,  as  is  observed  in  the  healing  of  a  wound.  Millions  of  cells 
are  being  born  into  your  body  every  minute;  other  millions  are 
dying  out;  you  are  constantly  creating  your  body,  and  re-creating 
it.  All  methods  of  therapy  must  rely  on  this  fact  for  a  cure  of 
disease  and  change  of  bodily  structure.  The  psychological  law 
which  governs  the  re-construction  of  the  body  is  the  pivotal  point 
of  this  lesson. 

I  have  told  you  that  cells  have  minds.  They  differ  in  their 
minds  as  more  complex  organisms.  This  is  a  new  field  of  study 
and  I  sliall  now  tell  you  what  seems  to  be  the  law  back  of  the  oper- 
ation of  the  cells,  and  how  that  law  is  constantly  working  in  your 
body  for  health  or  disease,  success  or  failure,  happiness  or  unhappi- 
ness,  whether  you  are  conscious  of  it  or  not. 

It  seems  that  you,  the  real  ego,  self,  are  the  absolute  monarch 
or  ruler  or  dictator  over  this  community  of  individual  cells  which 
make  up  your  body.  Again  it  seems  that  the  thought,  feeling  and 
emotion  which  enter  and  dominate  your  consciousness  are  the  means 
by  which  you  command  the  cells  of  your  body  to  operate.  It  seems 
that  the  energy  of  the  body  is  like  electricity,  and  that  you  have 
a  telephone  system,  composed  of  your  brain  and  nerves,  (being  the 
physical  apparatus),  and  the  consciousness  operating  the  brain  be- 
ing the  telegrapher.  Your  cells  are  the  receivers;  you  are  the  rec- 
ognized authority.  It  is  the  business  of  the  cells  to  take  your  mes- 
sages, but  never  to  offer  commands.  You  think  a  thought  of  dis- 
ease in  the  form  of  a  fear.  It  seems  that  you  telephone  automati- 
cally to  that  part  of  the  body  where  the  fear  is  centered  and  that 
the  message  is  taken  up  by  the  cells  of  that  organ,  they  in  turn 
become  active,  starting  energy  to  vibrating.  If  the  command  or 
fear  has  been  given  with  sufficient  force  once,  to  produce  a  psycho- 
logical moment  of  great  intensity  of  feeling,  or  if  the  fear  is  in- 
dulged over  a  sufficient  length  of  time,  the  response  in  cell  activity 
becomes  great  enough  to  build  the  structure  and  chemistry  which 
corresponds  to  the  particular  disease  of  which  you  have  been  afraid. 
An  almost  unvarying  law  of  cell  life  is  that  each  generation  repro- 
duces its  kind,  not  only  physically  but  mentally.  Give  a  cell  a 
forceful  command,  it  functions  accordingly,  the  next  generation 
does  the  same,  and  so  on  until  a  new  forceful  command  be  given. 
The  cells  seem  to  be  like  workmen ;  the  boss  gives  orders ;  they  con- 


18 


LESSON    NO.    2 


Hold  in 
Mind  the 
Law  of  the 
Sub-con- 
scious : 


tinue  to  obey  until  new  orders  are  given.  It  is  this  law  by  which 
habits  are  formed;  once  an  emotion  is  entertained  because  of  an 
immediate  circumstance,  it  will  have  a  tendency  to  re-function  long 
after  the  immediate  cause  has  been  removed.  We  are  constantly 
impressing  cells  of  body  and  brain.  We  are  building  character  now 
for  the  years  that  are  to  come.  If  we  would  attain  a  goal,  we  must 
live  it  by  the  wayside. 

Do  you  see  now  how,  if  you  continue  to  think  thoughts  of  dis- 
ease, sickness  and  unhappiness  you  build  a  body  through  the 
medium  of  the  cell  minds  which  corresponds  to  your  feelings  and 
emotions  ? 

Concentrated  thought  gives  definite  cell  command.  Sufficiently 
concentrated  to  become  a  soul  expectation,  it  is  always  realized. 
Soul  expectations  accumulate  generation  after  generation  and  be- 
come race  convictions.  These  race  convictions  become  the  potent 
factors  in  determining  our  body  condition,  and  their  vibratory 
effects  impinge  upon  the  consciousness  of  the  embodying  ego,  first 
through  heredity  and  then  modified  and  strengthened  in  pre-natal 
influence;  later  in  child  training,  education  and  universal  experi- 
ence. We  gain  from  these  sources  a  soul  conviction  that  certain 
things  are  necessary  because  they  are  universal,  and  are  therefore 
called  natural  law,  and  are  assumed  to  be  fixed  and  unchanging. 
Especially  note  this  statement:  Nature  as  it  applies  to  man  on  all 
planes  of  his  being  always  acts*  in  strict  accord  with  the  sum  total 
of  his  accumulated  experience.  What  is  natural  and  good  for  me 
may  not  be  natural  and  good  for  you,  because  of  the  difference  of 
our  accumulated  consciousness,  in  experience,  the  nature  of  which 
has  always  been  determined  by  our  interpretation  of  what  happens 
rather  than  the  event  itself.  The  resultant  action  of  accumulated 
consciousness  equals  natural  law.  It  is  by  virtue  of  this  law  that 
a  common  saying  becomes  true:  "What  is  one  man's  meat  is  an- 
other man's  poison." 

If  you  have  a  comprehension  of  the  law  which  I  have  been 
outlining  you  can  now  see  the  ''why"  of  old  age.  Once  upon  a  day, 
long  before  the  dawn  of  history,  eons  of  time  ago,  somehow,  some- 
where, man  violated  some  of  the  laws  of  his  being  and  thereby  re- 
stricted his  consciousness  and  cut  himself  off  from'  his  higher  self, 
the  God  within  and  the  God  without.  The  myriad  results  today 
show  forth  in  all  of  man's  undesirable  limitations.  He  accumulated 
gradually  a  consciousness  which  produced  old  age.  His  limited  ob- 
servation and  experience  then  told  him  it  was  a  necessity,  and  with 


LESSON    NO.    2  19 

the  generations  it  became  a  race  conviction,  a  sub-consciously  ac- 
cepted fact, — necessity, — which  in  turn  constantly  acts  as  com- 
mands upon  the  cells,  and  every  cell  in  the  body  takes  on  the  chem- 
istry and  structure  and  its  relative  arrangement  with  all  other  cells 
to  conform  to  the  soul's  conviction  of  the  requirements  for  age.  We 
are  all  ruled  by  this  race  consciousness ;  the  psychologist  is  trying  to 
rise  above  it,  but  rare  indeed  is  that  individual  who  can  think  above 
and  beyond  and  independent  of  the  thought  of  his  race  and  time. 

Realizing  this  law,  you  can  see  the  folly  of  living  over  past 
troubles  and  talking  to  your  neighbors  about  your  family  ailments. 
These  are  little  short  of  a  crime.  The  sympathetic  listener  enter- 
taining visions  of  the  things  you  describe  is  doing  what  he  can  to 
build  those  things  in  his  own  body.  Bugaboo  stories  to  children 
so  impress  the  cells  of  the  brain  and  nervous  system  that  all  through 
the  life  of  the  adult,  after  the  reason  and  judgment  repudiates  a 
fear,  the  fear  still  prevails.    Be  careful  of  your  conversations. 

During  highly  emotional  states  of  mind  the  action  of  the 
energy  and  cells  of  the  body  is  very  intense  and  rapid ;  that  is  why 
some  terrible  experience  makes  an  impression  in  a  moment  which 
lasts  a  life  time.  Mental  shock  of  sufficient  force  sometimes  changes 
the  pigments  of  the  hair  cells  so  the  hair  will  turn  white  in  a  few 
hours.  The  eyesight  has  been  known  to  be  lost  suddenly  through 
shock,  then  suddenly  regained  by  another  shock.  Constant  depress- 
ing emotions,  such  as  worry,  will  destroy  the  red  blood  corpuscles. 
The  blood  of  an  anaemic,  a  chronic  worrier,  may  not  show  one 
normal  cell. 

Even  advertisements  in  newspapers  of  patent  medicines  are 
disease  creators.  They  offer  the  worst  kind  of  mental  pictures,  and 
they  are  written  to  inject  fear  into  the  consciousness.  These  ad- 
vertisements are  written  by  skilled,  unprincipled  psychologists. 
The  physician  who  recognizes  this  law  will  be  careful  of  his  sug- 
gestion to  patients;  the  patient  who  is  frightened  about  his  con- 
dition has  faith  in  his  physician,  waits  for  his  verdict  with  great 
mental  intensity,  and  the  suggestion  offered  by  the  verdict  is  the 
most  potent  power  to  kill  or  cure.  A  good  percentage  of  the  op- 
erations upon  women  who  are  sensitive  and  suggestible  would  never 
be  necessary  if  all  physicians  were  psychologists.  A  good  rule  for 
everybody,  adults  associating  together,  and  adults  in  managing 
children,  is  this:  Never  say  a  single  thing  to  a  person  or  concern- 
ing him,  the  fullest  effect  of  u'hich  you  do  not  wish  to  become  per- 
manent in  his  life,  his  health,  the  events  of  his  life,  its  length. 


20  LESSON    NO.    2 

quality,  and  his  final  destiny. 

But  environment  is  full  of  adverse  suggestions,  and  we  must 
learn  how  to  handle  both  adverse  environment  and  adverse  sug- 
gestion so  as  not  to  be  affected  by  them.  If  you  are  ill,  kind  friends 
will  visit  you  and  tell  of  cases  like  yours  which  never  got  well. 
Yes,  and  you  "look  like  a  ghost."  They  do  not  know  that  they 
are  doing  all  in  their  power  to  make  a  ghost  out  of  you.  If  we 
did  outright  what  we  cause  to  happen  through  inadvertent  sugges- 
tions we  would  spend  our  days  in  the  penitentiary.  Our  one  prob- 
lem is  how  to  control  the  impressions  which  enter  and  dominate  the 
consciousness,  so  as  to  think  as  we  wish  to  think  and  feel  as  we 
wish  to  feel,  regardless  of  the  nature  of  events  in  life  as  they  come 
and  go.  The  most  important  problem  of  human  evolution  right  now 
is  how  to  govern  the  thought,  feeling  and  emotions ;  how  to  refuse 
admission  of  emotions  which  are  detrimental,  and  how  to  be  able 
constantly  to  dominate  the  mind  with  constructive  thought.  Man 
is  at  this  present  time  primarily  dominated  and  reacts  to  the  ex- 
periences of  life  from  the  emotional  standpoint,  and  not  from 
reason  and  judgment. 

Probably  the  best  short  cut  to  emotional  control  is  to  have  a 
well-defined  purpose  in  life,  which  so  fills  the  emotional  and  in- 
tellectual need  for  expression  that  all  the  trivial  daily  stress  and 
strife  become  secondary  in  their  importance.  Then  learn  the  sub- 
stitution of  thought,  constructive  for  destructive;  learn  happy  say- 
ings and  comforting  quotations;  then  when  the  hour  of  stress  ap- 
pears say  them  over  and  over;  try  to  feel  them  and  realize  them. 
Here  are  some  that  I  use :  ' '  God  is  in  His  heaven  and  all  is  well. ' ' 
' '  The  Lord  is  my  shepherd,  I  shall  not  want. ' '  The  words,  ' '  health, 
strength,  vitality  and  success"  repeated  over  and  over  again  re- 
enthuse  the  cells  of  the  brain  and  body,  re-energize  the  whole  body 
with  renewed  courage  and  strength  for  renewed  effort.  Continued 
effort  along  this  line  finally  gives  you  a  habit  of  optimism.  If  you 
awaken  in  the  night  with  fear  of  a  coming  disaster  rushing  in  upon 
you,  your  heart  starts  in  your  throat,  beat  it  back  with  a  long  deep 
breath  held  firmly  and  positively  for  a  moment.  Take  a  positive 
mental  attitude  towards  your  body.  A  negative  mental  attitude 
toward  pain  and  disease  encourages  its  continuance.  Alternate  be- 
tween complete  relaxation,  lying  down,  and  a  substantial,  positive 
effort  at  activity.  This  is  the  instruction  for  a  large  percentage 
of  the  semi-invalid  or  chronic-invalid.  Of  course  in  cases  of  acute 
illness  the  instructions  of  a  competent  physician  should  be  obeyed 


LESSON    NO.    2  21 

for  a  time  until  the  application  of  the  above  formula  becomes  ad- 
visable. 

I  have  said,  exercise  is  half  physical  and  half  mental.  Those  The  Physi- 
exercises  which  are  taken  without  putting  the  mind  into  them  ^^^^1 
produce  slight  results.  The  physical  principles  involved  in  exer-  Principle  of 
cise  are  contraction,  which  is  mechanically  squeezing  the  blood  out  Exercise: 
from  the  tissue,  which  takes  with  it  the  debris;  then  relaxation, 
wherein  the  blood  renewed  and  purified  and  laden  with  body- 
building substance  returns.  This  moment  of  relaxation  and  the 
arrival  of  the  red  blood  corpuscles  is  a  psychological  moment  for 
rebuilding  of  the  tissue.  Here  are  cells  awaiting  a  command.  Hav- 
ing no  immediate  command  they  work  along  the  line  of  previously 
established  plans.  Suppose  you  are  exercising  your  arm.  You 
wish  to  develop  a  particular  type  of  arm.  Decide  what  type  you 
want.  Make  a  mental  picture  of  your  arm.  Close  your  eyes;  see  it 
in  your  mind's  eye;  concentrate  your  attention;  then  contract  the 
muscles,  closing  the  hands  tight,  positively,  firmly,  definitely,  as- 
suming a  positive  mental  attitude.  Then  relax;  the  blood  rushes 
back;  assume  a  relaxed  mental  attitude  gently  but  firmly  holding 
a  mental  picture  of  the  arm  which  you  wish  to  build,  and  to  the 
degree  in  which  you  can  hold  the  attention  upon  that  picture,  un- 
modified, you  are  commanding  the  cells  of  the  body,  and  your  com- 
mand shall  be  obeyed.  This  same  principle  can  be  applied  to  all 
parts  of  the  body.  True  it  is,  that  the  fine  concentrator  can  govern 
the  action  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood  in  the  various  parts  of  his 
body  and  take  all  his  exercises  mentally,  but  for  quick,  definite  re- 
sults for  the  beginner,  the  physical  plus  the  mental  is  the  wise 
procedure.  A  set  system  of  exercise,  which  is  never  varied,  is  not 
as  desirable  as  the  stretching  and  twisting  and  pulling  and  relax- 
ing of  all  the  body,  even  the  arteries.  Movements  which  ever  vary 
will  get  much  better  results  if  the  mind  be  centered  upon  the  effort 
and  the  exercise  be  intelligently  applied.  Study  you  own  body 
needs,  and  study  ways  and  means  of  correcting  defects  and  develop- 
ing the  entire  organism.  Read  Sanford  Bennet's  book,  ''Old  Age, 
Its  Cause  and  Prevention." 


LESSON  No.  3 


NERVE  ENERGY 


Nerve 

Energy 

Defined: 


Analogy : 


Nerve  Energy  is  the  medium  by  which  all  physical  and  mental 
processes  take  place.  It  is  the  life  force  of  the  body.  It  is  the 
force  which  enables  us  to  exist  and  function.  It  is  the  force 
which  enables  us  to  build  the  body  in  the  first  place  and  which 
we  are  constantly  using  in  rebuilding  and  repairing.  It  is  the 
force  which  connects  the  soul  with  the  body. 

Nerve  energy  seems  to  remain  quiescent,  else  it  be  set  into  ac- 
tion by  mental  activity.  Mind  acting  seems  to  disturb  energy 
much  as  a  stone  which  is  thrown  in  a  pond  of  water.  Vibrations 
go  out  in  circles  from  the  stone,  the  intensity  and  character  of 
the  vibration  being  determined  by  the  size  of  the  stone,  the  force 
with  which  it  is  thrown,  the  slant  and  so  on,  and  just  so  it  seems 
that  nerve  energy  vibrates  when  set  into  action  by  mind. 

Nerve  energy  seems  to  be  a  specialized  crystallized  form  of 
universal  vital  force,  which  permeates  all  space  and  everything 
in  space.  This  universal  vital  force  is  the  medium  by  which  every- 
thing came  into  existence.  There  are  specialized  forms  of  this  uni- 
versal vital  force,  which  seem  to  have  been  created  or  modified 
by  the  action  of  individual  consciousness,  one  form  of  which  is 
what  we  call  nerve  energy,  that  little  slice  out  of  the  universal 
vital  force  w^hich  your  personality  has  appropriated  in  its  evolu- 
tionary unfoldment. 

Another  specialized  form  of  this  universal  force  is  commercial 
electricity.  We  can  get  some  adequate  idea  of  nerve  energy  or 
body  electricity  by  studying  commercial  electricity.  We  do  not 
know,  we  have  no  adequate  conception,  of  just  what  is  nerve 
energy.  We  can  only  know  it  by  the  results  of  its  action.  Edison 
himself  says  that  he  does  not  know  what  electricity  is.  He  knows 
just  as  much  about  it  as  the  visible  manifestation  of  its  action 
teaches  him.  We  know  that  the  wires  of  the  telegraph,  telephone 
and  transit  companies  must  be  charged  with  electricity  in  order 
to  be  alive  and  have  the  power  to  transmit  messages  and  carry 
loads.  Wires  so  charged  are  live  wires.  Without  electricity  the 
wires  are  dead  and  inert,  they  have  no  power.  Just  so  with  the 
human  body  and  body  electricity.     Our  nerves  are  the  body  wires. 


LESSON    NO.    3  23 

When  sufficiently  charged  with  bodily  electricity  we  are  alive, 
alert,  we  have  energy,  power,  and  when  this  energy  is  properly 
directed  and  applied, — dependable,  desirable  results  can  be  ac- 
complished ;  but  when  the  body  becomes  depleted,  the  mental  ac- 
tivity and  realization  becomes  slow,  indistinct  and  incomplete; 
all  kinds  of  deficiencies  result,  and  with  sufficient  depletion,  death 
ensues. 

There  are  three  phases  to  the  study  of  nerve  energy :  first,  how  Bases : 
to  get  it  if  you  have  not  enough ;  second,  how  to  keep  it,  and  re- 
frain from  wasting  it;  third,  how  to  apply  it.     In  other  words,  its 
generation,  conservation,  and  application. 

Nerve  energy  is  generated  by  obedience  to  two  types  of  law,  Generation: 
physical  and  mental.  In  the  first  lesson  I  told  you  how  to  breathe, 
drink,  eat  and  exercise.  I  was  talking  all  the  time  directly  about 
energy.  I  know  that  the  air  we  breathe  contains  an  abundance 
of  energy.  If  we  have  a  normal  lung  capacity  we  get  our  full 
quota  of  energy  from  that  source,  but  with  deficient  lung  capacity 
we  cut  ourselves  off  to  a  degree  from  that  source  of  supply.  When 
I  said,  Drink  at  least  two  quarts  of  water  daily,  I  had  in  mind 
that  water  contains  energy.  When  I  gave  you  instructions  in 
proper  methods  of  eating,  I  had  two  phases  of  the  study  of 
energy  in  mind,  the  first  one  how  to  get  the  largest  percentage  of 
energy  from  the  food  you  eat;  then  also,  how  to  conserve  the 
energy  by  eating  the  proper  kind  and  quantity  of  food.  For 
foods  which  are  difficult  to  digest  require  more  energy  in  the 
process,  and  over-eating  causes  an  accumulation  of  debris  and 
poisons  in  the  body,  which  requires  overdrafts  of  energy  to  throw 
off.  Wrong  methods  of  living  make  such  a  tax  upon  the  body, 
that  the  energy  is  largely  consumed  in  just  keeping  it  balanced, 
without  any  appreciable  surplus  left  to  accomplish  things  and 
raise  your  standard.  In  proper  exercise  you  are  distributing  and 
applying  the  energy.  In  the  second  lesson,  about  the  Cell  Theory, 
I  was  telling  you  how  to  control  the  thought,  feeling  and  emotions 
in  such  a  way  as  to  give  proper  commands  to  the  cells  of  your 
body  for  the  conservation  and  the  application  of  energy. 

To  begin  to  accumulate  an  adequate  idea  of  how  energy  acts,  Sub-con- 
I  here  give  the  first  instructions  in  regard  to  the  various  phases  Relation^^to 
of  the  action  of  mind.     Your  mind,  which  is  one  mind,  has  four  Nerve 
phases  of   action.     The   conscious,   sub-conscious,   subjective,    and  ^"^^sy- 
super-conscious.     A  definition  of  each:  The  conscious  mind  is  the 
mind  which  is  under  the  will  control ;  it  is  the  reasoning  mind.    You 


24  LESSON    NO.  3 

think  about  a  proposition,  reason  and  judge  upon  it,  doubt  and 
argue  about  it,  finally  come  to  a  conclusion.  You  can  take  your 
choice  as  to  what  you  will  do  about  it,  or  let  it  alone.  This  phase 
of  your  mind  is  under  your  will  control.  Man  has  been  wont  in 
the  past  to  think  that  his  reason  and  judgment  is  a  big  factor  in 
his  personality,  and  it  is  a  very  necessary  phase,  for  the  conscious 
mind  has  been  builded  and  fulfils  the  requirement  which  enables 
us  to  meet  the  external  world  successfully.  But  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  it  is  one  of  the  smallest  phases  of  the  action  of  mind.  There 
is  another,  the  great  sub-conscious  mind,  which  we  may  rightly 
speak  of  as  the  hitherto  undiscovered  mind,  which  is  purely  auto- 
matic in  its  operation.  As  you  read  this  page  you  are  thinking 
along  the  lines  which  I  suggest.  You  are  reasoning  about  the 
quality  of  the  contents,  you  are  perhaps  arguing,  maybe  doubting. 
But  at  the  same  time  all  unconscious  to  this  reasoning  mind,  your 
heart  continues  to  beat  and  your  vital  organs  carry  on  their  func- 
tions. If  you  have  lived  right  in  the  past,  that  complex  bodily 
process  is  going  on  so  smoothly,  so  harmoniously,  that  you  take 
no  cognizance  of  it.  For  ages  man  did  not  know  that  his  blood 
circulated.  Yet  all  this  while  there  was  a  great  sub-conscious 
knowledge  and  intelligence,  possessed  by  primitive,  uneducated 
man,  which  enabled  him  to  build  and  continually  repair  a  body. 
When  you  think  of  the  great  complexity  of  the  human  organism, 
even  the  human  eye,  which  has  an  ability  to  adjust  itself  to  see 
at  a  distance  and  then  close  at  hand, — the  human  heart,  which 
knows  just  how  rapidly  to  beat  when  you  sit  quietly,  then  speed 
up  if  you  run  around  a  block, — adjust  itself  constantly  to  an  ever 
varying  condition, — all  this  process  going  on  of  which  you  con- 
sciously know  nothing,  you  will  begin  to  appreciate  one  phase 
of  your  sub-conscious  ability. 
Secrets  of  I    have    asked    some  of    the    best    scientists    in    the    country 

Core  of^  ^  whether  they  consider  it  to  be  a  possibility  that  man  shall  ever 
Sub-con-  learn  the  secrets  of  body  building  and  be  able  to  produce  life  by 
chemical  means;  one  and  all  say  it  is  impossible.  Man,  objectively, 
can  never  know  the  secrets  of  body  building.  The  more  we  study 
the  body  as  a  physical  organism,  as  a  mechanical  organism,  the 
more  we  find  to  learn,  and  we  never  know  it  all.  Looking  at  it  as 
a  vitalized  organism,  we  haven't  even  taken  a  start,  and  when 
viewing  it  as  a  crystallized,  vitalized  result  of  psychic  activity,  or 
trying  to  know  the  causal  as  well  as  the  resultant  side  of  body 
functioning,  the  scientist  hasn't  even  made  a  beginning.     Small 


scious: 


LESSON    NO.    3  25 

indeed  is  the  intellectual,  external  attainment  of  man  as  com- 
pared with  his  great  sub-conscious  knowledge,  power,  and  po- 
tentiality for  development  and  unfoldment.  Down  deep  in  your 
sub-conscious  mind  you  possess  apparently  an  infinitude  of  knowl- 
edge. You  are  an  expert  chemist  and  biologist;  you  are  a  genius 
in  mathematics;  no  applied  psychologist  has  ever  been  able  to 
strike  the  limit  of  actual  knowledge  possessed  by  the  sub-conscious 
mind  of  any  individual.  I  do  not  know  where  man  gained  his  sub- 
conscious mind.  Maybe  it  is  a  relative  infinitude  of  experience. 
May  be  it  is  a  spark  of  the  divine,  a  single  cell  in  universal  con- 
sciousness, and  like  as  a  drop  of  water  partakes  of  the  properties 
of  the  great  ocean,  so  does  man  partake  of  the  properties  of  the 
infinite.  Being  a  part  of  this  universal  consciousness,  there  never 
was  a  time  when  he  was  not,  therefore  he  partakes  of  universal 
experience, — hence  possesses  a  sub-conscious  mind  of  universal 
knowledge.  May  be  he  is  a  more  or  less  separated  personal  con- 
sciousness, and  that  he  may  be  likened  to  a  book,  the  outer  cover- 
ing of  which  protects  the  more  delicate,  perishable  leaves.  The 
cover  is  his  conscious  mind.  Lift  it  up,  examine  the  title  page,  the 
introduction,  and  you  have  hit  that  part  of  the  mind  analagous 
to  the  subjective,  and  the  first  pages,  the  outer  layers  of  the  sub- 
conscious; turn  page  after  page  and  you  have  opened  layer  after 
layer  of  the  sub-conscious  mind,  but  in  opening  this  great  personal 
record  you  never  come  to  the  last  page.  You  go  on  down  and  down, 
and  maybe  it  is  that  this  book  is  connected  some  place  with  the 
book  of  universal  knowledge.  Maybe  it  is  that  in  the  deepest 
planes  of  the  sub-conscious  mind  man  has  a  connection  with 
God,  his  Father,  and  striking  that  plane  he  has  access  to  all 
the  facts  of  the  Universe.  No  matter  which  theory  is  true,  for 
practical  purposes  you  and  I  can  assume  that  within  the  deepest 
recesses  of  our  soul  self  there  is  an  unlimited  knowledge  and  an 
unlimited  possibility  for  development  and  unfoldment.  For  im- 
mediate practical  purposes  we  can  safely  assume  that  it  is  possible 
for  us  to  develop  right  here  in  this  life  the  perfection  of  our  own 
special  type.  At  least  nine-tenths  of  the  mind  is  sub-conscious  or 
automatic,  one-tenth  is  conscious  or  under  the  volitional  control. 

Between  these  two  minds  there  is  a  connection,  or  perhaps  more  Subjective 
properly  a  disconnecting  link,  which  I  call  the  subjective  mind.  ^^^,  °^ 
The  subjective  mind  is  the  weakest  link  in  human  consciousness. 
I  sometimes  call  it  the  ''tramp"  mind.     It  follows  a  will  o'  the 
wisp,  it  goes  whither  it  will,  regardless  of  your  wish,  and  many 


26 


LESSON    NO.    3 


times  it  drifts  into  places  and  contemplations  which  your  intellect 
and  judgment  would  repudiate. 
"Make  A  chain  is  no  stronger  than  its  weakest  link.     Since  our  sub- 

Volatile"^  jective  mind  is  the  weakest  link  in  the  consciousness,  we  have  no 
more  ability  to  govern  the  health,  the  emotions,  the  events  of  life, 
its  length  and  our  final  destiny  than  that  represented  by  our  ability 
to  control  the  action  of  the  subjective  mind.  I  am  asked  why,  if 
the  mind  of  man  possesses  such  unlimited  possibilities  he  is  ham- 
pered by  such  strict  limitations?  My  answer:  These  limitations 
are  due  to  the  fact  that  the  mind,  conscious  and  sub-conscious  is 
separated  by  the  broken  link, — the  subjective  mind.  It  is  the  im- 
proper co-ordination  of  the  mind,  conscious  and  sub-conscious, 
which  causes  undesirable  limitations,  poor  health,  poor  memory, 
inability  to  see  and  sense  ahead,  make  proper  choices,  do  the 
right  thing,  and  make  life  a  success.  The  proper  co-ordination 
of  those  two  minds  makes  the  genius;  all  geniuses  along  any  line 
of  attainnment  have  the  ability  to  connect  these  two  minds,  or  tap, 
^  through  the  medium  of  subjective  control,  their  unlimited  sub- 
conscious power  and  knowledge.  Today  man  uses  but  a  small  pro- 
portion of  his  real  powers — one-tenth  at  best.  The  big  study  of 
the  applied  psychologist  of  today  is  how  to  connect  these  two 
minds,  or  gain  the  volitional  control  of  the  subjective  mind.  To 
the  degree  to  which  we  can  do  that  we  shall  cease  to  be  creatures 
of  environment  aYid  chance.  In  order  adequately  to  understand 
the  how  and  why  of  the  action  of  these  various  phases  of  mind 
you  must  know  as  much  as  possible  about  the  subject  of  nerve 
energy,  for  the  two  go  hand  in  hand. 

Nerve  enregy  is  generated  by  obedience  to  the  law  of  life, 
physical  and  mental.  It  is  conserved  by  obedience  to  the  law  of 
life,  physical,  mental  and  moral;  it  is  applied  by  the  mental  law 
only.  That  individual  who  possesses  an  abundance  of  nerve  energy, 
I  call  the  sensitive ;  the  individual  depleted  is  the  non-sensitive. 

You  already  know  the  physical  laws  of  life  for  the  generation 
and  conservation  of  energy.  You  have  a  hint  as  to  the  law  of  its 
conservation  on  the  mental  side.  Man  at  the  present  time  is  re- 
acting toward  his  life's  experiences  primarily  from  the  emotional 
point  of  view  rather  than  reason  and  judgment.  All  mental  ac- 
tivity uses  energy  and  tends  to  crystallize  it  according  to  the 
character  of  the  thought,  feeling  or  emotion  which  dominates  the 
consciousness.  There  are  two  kinds  of  people,  the  wise  and  the 
unwise;  the  wise  react  hopefully,  optimistically,  constructively,  to- 


Conserva 
tion  of 
Energy : 


LESSON    NO.    3  27 

ward  life's  experience  and  so  dominate  their  consciousness  with 
constructive  emotions;  the  other  kind  are  worry ers  and  trouble 
hunters,  and  dominate  their  consciousness  with  fears,  anxiety, 
anger,  jealousy,  worry,  and  so  waste  and  worse  than  waste  a  large 
percentage  of  their  energy.  The  conservation  of  energy  can  be 
summed  up  as  thought  controlled,  which  shows  forth  in  right 
living,  optimistic  thinking,  and  a  high  type  of  morality.  Most 
people  are  born  sensitives.  Given  half  a  chance  in  their  heredity 
and  pre-natal  life  they  come  into  this  world  with  what  we  some- 
times call  a  ten  horsepower  surplus  energy.  But  the  biggest  busi- 
ness on  the  face  of  the  earth,  the  business  of  being  a  mother,  has 
no  training.  The  mother  not  knowing  how  to  take  care  of  the 
child,  its  reserve  of  energy  is  drawn  upon  in  childhood;  the  ab- 
normal conditions  imposed  by  modern  educational  methods  con- 
tinues the  tax,  until  on  the  average,  by  the  time  it  has  reached  the 
age  of  25,  it  has  been  to  a  degree  depleted  in  energy. 

This  subject  of  energy  is  too  big  to  be  completed  in  a  brief 
outline  such  as  this.  Let  us  briefly  consider  it  from  two  inde- 
pendent standpoints. 

Let  us  assume  that  once  upon  a  day  primitive  man  was  in  the  Accumu- 
same  environment  as  the  present  wild  animal.  Living  out  of  doors,  H*^..  ^^*^® 
enduring  the  changes  of  the  seasons  and  the  vicissitudes  and  un- 
certainties of  existence,  having  little  if  any  clothing,  many  times 
hungry,  having  to  run  and  work  hard  for  what  food  he  had,  and 
always  a  scanty  supply.  His  energy  was  practically  all  used  up 
in  the  process  of  physical  existence.  But  as  time  went  on  man 
accumulated  experience  which  finally  enabled  him  to  put  two  and 
two  together  as  it  were,  and  draw  conclusions.  It  was  the  dawn 
of  intellect  and  reason.  This  superior  ability  gave  him  the  ad- 
vantage over  the  rest  of  Nature.  He  learned  how  to  build  a  fire 
and  warm  himself,  thus  conserving  energy,  made  weapons  of 
defense  and  reduced  his  necessity  for  fighting;  learned  how  to 
take  advantage  of  and  kill  animals  for  food,  and  use  their  skins  for 
clothing,  thus  conserving  his  own  energies.  Later  he  learned  to  till 
the  soil  and  increase  its  productiveness.  Food  became  abundant. 
From  the  first  cave  he  builded  houses,  made  a  fire  and  warmed 
himself.  His  accumulated  knowledge  enabled  him  to  eat  more  and 
work  less,  which  mode  of  life  had  a  tendency  ever  to  increase  his 
surplus  store  of  energy.  All  through  human  experience,  so  it  has 
become  evident  to  the  applied  psychologist,  accumulated  energy 
demands  expressions  and  if  the  individual  is  not  wise  enough  to 


28 


LESSON    NO.    3 


Directing 
Energy 

vs. 
Misdirect- 
ing: 


apply  it  constructively  for  a  healthy  body,  a  sound  mind,  a  unified 
personality,  a  spiritual  and  psychic  unfoldment,  it  will  apply 
itself  according  to  the  accumulated  habit  mind  or  race  experience, 
be  that  desirable  or  undesirable.  Some  place,  at  some  time  before 
the  dawn  of  history  man  accumulated  enough  intelligence  to  lay 
up  a  big  storehouse  of  energy  without  a  corresponding  spiritual 
insight  as  to  the  best  means  of  applying  it.  Maybe  that  is  the 
time  that  is  recorded  as  the  fall  of  man.  Anyhow  man  became  too 
much  interested  in  things  external.  Possibly  his  previous  experi- 
ence in  battling  with  the  world  for  existence  made  this  one-sided 
consciousness  a  necessity,  but  anyway  man  gave  his  attention  pre- 
dominantly to  the  physical  side  of  life  and  pandering  to  the  senses, 
without  due  consideration  to  the  psychic  and  spiritual  nature. 
As  a  consequence,  he  violated  certain  of  the  laws  of  his  being,  and 
cut  himself  off  thereby  from  his  higher  self  and  his  God.  As  this 
unequal  experience  accumulated  men  have  a  tendency  to  doubt 
even  whether  they  are  immortal  beings.  Sensing  only  this  external 
life  they  are  prone  to  believe  it  to  be  all  there  is. 

This  pandering  to  the  senses  finally  developed  into  an  ab- 
normal sex  tendency,  which  finally  became  such  a  fixed  impulse 
that  man  with  his  limited  vision  came  to  believe  it  to  be  right  and 
necessary.  Today  man  has  as  a  consequence  a  perverted  idea  as 
to  the  right  use  of  the  sex  functions.  The  race  has  gone  sex  mad; 
the  impulse  has  become  so  ungovernable  that  it  is  now  thought 
to  be  natural  and  necessary.  But  what  is  "Nature"  as  it  applies 
to  man?  It  is  the  crystallized,  operating  result  of  accumulated 
consciousness,  which  shows  forth  in  temperament  and  tendencies 
and  habits.  Attention  governs  the  action  of  energy;  energy  goes 
into  the  part  of  the  body  to  which  attention  is  consciously  or 
habitually  given.  This  causes  extra  vibratory  energy  action  in 
that  particular  organ, — extra  blood  circulation,  abnormal  develop- 
ment, when  the  attention  is  placed  upon  that  particular  organ 
more  than  upon  other  parts  of  the  body.  The  applied  psychologist 
now  knows  that  the  cell  structure  of  the  brain,  the  shape  of  the 
head,  the  cast  of  the  countenance,  is  determined  by  the  law  of 
attention.  Just  so  is  the  development  and  functioning  of  all  the 
vital  organs  determined  by  the  attention.  Today  man  is  convinced 
that  a  certain  type  of  morality  is  right  for  the  man,  another  for 
woman.  He  says  it  is  ''Nature;"  they  are  different.  But  man 
is  forty  percent  feminine  and  woman  is  forty  percent  masculine, 
and  there  is  every  degree  of  intensity  of  femininity  and  muscu- 


LESSON    NO.    3  29 

Unity,  both  in  men  and  women.  Fundamentally  we  are  all  alike, 
with  the  same  impulses,  same  intellects,  and  the  sex  necessity  for 
the  masculine  has  been  accentuated  through  the  training  of  the 
ages,  while  the  influence  upon  the  feminine  has  been  for  repres- 
sion and  inhibition.  This  has  been  continued  over  sufficient  length 
of  time  to  make  a  seeming  difference  in  the  fundamental  nature. 
The  clean,  sweet,  pure  and  holy  life  may  become  a  possibility  for 
all,  both  men  and  women,  but  when  it  does  it  will  be  because  our 
boys  and  our  girls  have  both  been  trained  to  a  recognition  of  the 
laws  of  their  being  and  how  they  operate,  and  how  their  opera- 
tion can  be  governed  and  controlled  to  produce  the  best  results. 
Our  boys  and  girls  need  knowledge  to  guide  them  aright  in  char- 
acter development.  Heretofore  they  have  not  been  given  this 
knowledge.  Little  Johnny  Everychild  and  his  sister  Mary,  guarded, 
cared  for  and  protected  by  the  mother,  are  equally  sweet  and 
pure  and  lovely.  They  both  start  to  school;  the  worst  boy  on  the 
grounds  begins  to  "wise  up"  Johnny;  his  sister  is  protected;  he 
is  told  that  certain  things  are  manly,  right,  necessary;  not  so  for 
his  sister.  His  father  before  him  was  so  taught,  and  now  believes 
it;  society  is  builded  on  that  basis.  Man,  the  only  animal  with  a 
big  intellect,  is  the  only  one  which  has  developed  a  venereal  disease 
from  abnormal  use  of  the  sex  function.  Some  say  it  is  right,  it  is 
necessary.  How  can  we  judge?  Natural  law  reigns  supreme. 
Natural  law  is  the  visible  expression  of  divine  will;  any  habit  of 
thought  or  physical  practices  which  react  detrimentally  upon  any- 
one concerned  and  cause  suffering  or  reduction  of  personality  is 
evidently  against  God's  will.  Live  in  harmony  with  natural  law, 
the  results  are  always  health,  strength,  happiness;  violate  the  law, 
unhappiness,  disease,  friction,  result.  i\Iy  sympathy  is  with  the 
boy.  The  world  gives  him  practically  no  chance  to  develop  a 
normal  body,  with  normal  impulses  which  correspond  with  the 
highest  ideals.  We  must  begin  with  the  children,  for  the  atten- 
tion, the  thoughts  and  emotions  induced  by  lustful  thoughts  actually 
change  the  cell  structures  of  the  reproductive  organs,  and  with 
abnormal  thought  during  the  developmental  period  a  life  of  purity 
becomes  will  nigh  impossible  thereafter. 

It  is  evident  throughout  all  Nature  that  God  ordained  the 
sex  function  for  the  reproduction  of  the  species  and  for  that  pur- 
pose only,  and  any  use  of  this  function  for  purely  sensuous  pur- 
poses is  a  violation  of  natural  law  and  results  in  a  lowering  of  the 
vitality,  both  physical  and  mental.     I  lay  special  stress  upon  this 


30  LESSON    NO.    3 

phase  of  nerve  energy  loss  because  the  sex  organs  are  normally 
charged  with  nerve  energy  in  a  condensed  form,  and  abuse  of  this 
function  therefore  robs  the  system  to  a  much  greater  degree  than 
a  corresponding  abuse  of  any  other  function.  Physiologists  claims 
than  an  ounce  of  semen  is  nerve  energy  so  condensed  that  it  af- 
fords enough  vitality  to  enable  a  man  to  carry  on  the  functions  of 
life  for  five  days. 

The  sex  organs  are  the  recruiting  station,  the  body's  localizer 
of  nerve  energy,  and  where  the  drain  is  unnatural  in  those  organs, 
the  body  and  brain  are  left  only  partially  supplied. 

Humanity  has  lived  an  unnatural,  wasteful  sex  life  for  so 
long  that  it  has  come  to  be  believed  right  and  necessary.  Man  is 
today  in  consequence  a  pygmy,  physically,  mentally  and  psychically, 
as  compared  with  what  he  could  be  if  he  would  live  the  natural 
life  se:5^ually.  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  if  the  unnatural  w^aste 
incident  to  the  perverted  sex  life  could  be  stopped,  humanity 
would  immediately  gain  such  a  complete  supply  of  nerve  energy 
as  to  enable  it  to  gain  inestimably  physically  and  mentally,  and 
that  the  connecting  link  between  the  conscious  and  sub-conscious 
minds  would  be  strengthened  until  all  the  forces,  both  conscious 
and  sub-conscious  would  be  under  volitional  control.  Such  a  con- 
dition would  mean  men  of  genius  who  could  conquer  their  own 
forces  and  the  forces  of  nature  about  them,  instead  of  the  weak, 
vacillating,  erring  human  mistakes  and  accidents  which  are  every- 
where about  us. 

With  a  normal  sex  life  mothers  and  prospective  mothers  could 
give  their  surplus  strength  and  vitality  to  their  children  and  a 
new  race  would  arise,  more  beautiful,  more  symmetrical,  stronger, 
and  more  intelligent  than  anything  ever  dreamed  of  by  the  ancient 
Greeks  and  Romans.  The  sex  sin  is  the  sin  of  sins  and  because 
of  it  w^e  have  will  nigh  lost  our  divine  heritage  of  a  healthy  body 
and  a  sound  mind  and  we  have  lost  that  other,  the  psychic  sense, 
which  should  connect  us  with  God  and  heaven.  But  it  is  possible 
so  to  live  that  this  heritage  can  be  regained,  and  the  means  is  to 
live  the  natural  life,  which  affords  a  maximum  of  generation  and 
conservation  of  nerve  energy  and  its  wisest  and  most  profitable 
application, — a  life  of  physical,  mental  and  moral  compliance  with 
the  laws  which  God  has  ordained. 

Let  us  study  the  subject  of  nerve  energy  now  from  an  entirely 
different  angle,  in  an  attempt  to  gain  a  realization  of  the  require- 
ments to  gain,  keep  and  profitably  apply  an  abundance  of  it. 


LESSON    NO.    3  31 

The  mind  is  the  mental  mould  into  which  the  body  is  poured  Mental 
and  crystallized  as  it  were.  A  tense  mental  attitude  produces  a  ^^^ 
corresponding  tension  in  the  body,  just  as  a  sponge  squeezed  Nerve 
tightly  in  the  hand  when  immersed  in  water  will  absorb  almost  "^^sy- 
none,  so  the  body  when  tied  up  in  tension  can  absorb  or  hold  but 
little  energy.  Here  is  an  exact  truism.  To  the  degree  to  which 
your  insight  and  temperament  enables  you  to  give  a  normal, 
healthy,  happy,  optimistic,  confident,  positive  reaction  toward  the 
events  of  life,  to  that  degree  are  the  kinks  all.  taken  out  of  your 
mind  and  the  corresponding  physical  tie-ups  disappear.  This 
loosens  and  opens  up  the  body  so  that  it  becomes  a  free  medium 
through  which  the  universal  energy  freely  flows,  enabling  you  to 
appropriate  and  apply  any  portion  of  it  which  may  be  useful  to 
you  in  the  business  of  living.  If  you  w^ant  to  know  whether  you 
are  depleted  or  not,  examine  your  own  inner  consciousness  and 
see  whether  you  have  fears,  worries,  anxieties,  angers  and  jeal- 
ousies, or  whether  you  are  always  happy  and  the  consiousness  is 
always  free.  The  Bible  says,  *'Know  the  truth,  and  the  truth 
shall  make  you  free."  The  psychologist  says,  "Know  the  law  of 
the  mind,  conscious  and  sub-conscious,  and  the  corresponding  ac- 
tion of  energy, — apply  the  same,  and  free  your  personality  of 
every  undesirable  limitation."  All  abnormal  methods  of  living, 
all  abnormal  impulses  and  tendencies,  are  unnecessary  mental 
limitations,  mental  kinks  from  which  it  is  possible  for  you  to  free 
yourself.  Live  right,  think  right,  direct  and  keep  your  attention 
upon  those  things  which  are  true  and  pure  and  holy.  Love  the 
world,  hate  no  man,  forget  the  past  except  as  it  has  lessons  for 
you,  live  intensely,  happily,  joyfully,  busily,  usefully  in  th6  pres- 
ent. Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.  Do  something  for  somebody 
quick;  look  hopefully  and  confidently  into  the  future,  and  know 
that  "God  is  in  His  heaven  and  all  is  well,"  and  you  will  have  an 
abundance  of  energy,  and  steadily  climb  up  the  ladder  of  success. 


LESSON  Mo.  4 

MIND-ITS  LAWS.  POWERS  AND  POSSIBILITIES 

You  are  where  you  are  because  you  are  what  you  are.  You 
are  what  you  are  because  of  the  nature  of  your  accumulated  con- 
sciousness. Accumulated  consciousness  seems  to  have  been  eternal, 
and  your  personality  now  equals  the  sum  total  of  previously  ac- 
cumulated experience  modified  by  heredity,  pre-natal  culture, 
child  training,  education  and  life's  experience. 

It  seems  that  in  the  development  of  human  personality  in  the 
earlier  stages  of  evolution  environment  plays  the  biggest  part. 
Environment  impinging  upon  the  consciousness  irritates  it  into 
action,  the  re-action  in  thought,  feeling  and  emotion  is  determined 
by  the  kind  of  experience  which  environment  offers,  but  in  a  later 
stage  of  evolution,  after  consciousness  has  evolved  to  the  point  of 
intellect,  reason,  judgment,  it  begins  to  modify  the  influences  of 
environment  and  t(5  ^  degree  determines  the  character  of  interpre- 
tation of  same.  Of  the  animal  I  would  say,  its  environment  de- 
termines to  the  largest  degree  what  it  is,  but  of  the  man  I  would 
say,  it  isn't  what  happens,  it  is  how  you  interpret  the  event  and 
your  soul  reaction  toward  that  event,  including  your  will  to  en- 
dure or  eliminate  desirable  or  undesirable  experience  in  environ- 
ment,— your  interpretation,  I  say,  is  the  thing  that  counts.  A 
concise  truism  of  applied  psychology  is,  it  isn't  what  happens,  it 
is  how  it  affects  you,  it  is  how  you  take  it  that  determines  its  fav- 
orable or  unfavorable  reaction  upon  you. 

Your  accumulated  experience  and  its  interpretation  deter- 
mines the  character  of  your  temperament  right  now.  Through 
the  eons  of  time  that  you  have  lived  and  experienced  certain  ideas, 
emotions,  feelings,  thoughts,  have  entered  and  dominated  your 
mind.  Those  were  mental  seeds,  the  planting  of  which  may  have 
long  since  been  forgotten  by  your  conscious  self,  but  their  full 
grown  fruit  are  manifested  today  as  definite  phases  of  your  per- 
sonality. Some  of  these  were  determining  factors  in  your  per- 
sonality previous  to  the  accumulation  of  your  present  hereditary 
influence.  Plunging  into  close  psychic  association,  according  to 
the  great  law  of  cause  and  effect,  your  personality  was  modified 
by  this  association.     The  next  modifying  factor  was  the  influence 


LESSON    NO.    4  33 

of  the  consciousness  of  your  mother  upon  your  personality  previ- 
ous to  your  birth.  The  nerve  energy  of  her  body  was  the  nerve 
energy  of  your  undeveloped  body  also.  When  an  emotion  filled 
her  mind  it  dominated  the  vibratory  action  of  the  energy  of  your 
body  and  unformed  brain  and  nervous  system,  making  lasting 
impressions,  producing  lasting  results  in  temperament,  trends  and 
personality  throughout  your  entire  life.  Later  on,  the  things  you 
were  taught  to  believe  as  a  child,  the  influences  which  were  brought 
to  bear  upon  you  all  through  your  life, — all  these  things  working 
together  caused  the  thoughts,  feeling  and  emotions,  in  short  the 
temperament  and  personality  with  which  you  find  yourself  today. 
The  analytical  adult  mind  is  able  to  hark  back  into  childhood  ex- 
periences and  there  find  many  of  the  causes  of  undesirable  emo- 
tional tendencies  which  the  later  developed  intellect  repudiates. 
Learn  to  analyze  your  mind;  when  you  are  dominated  by  an  emo- 
tion of  great  intensity,  stop  and  try  to  find  its  cause.  The  applied 
psychologist  deals  primarily  with  causes  and  not  results. 

In  building  personality  we  may  liken  it  to  a  mental  garden  The 
and  the  impressions,  thoughts,  feelings  and  emotions  which  dom-  Ingredients 
inate  the  mind  may  be  likened  to  the  mental  seed  planted  in  that  acter: 
garden.     Anyone  knows  that  in  gardening  the  harvest  primarily 
depends  upon  the  kind  of  seed  that  is  sown.     Just  so  it  is  in  the 
harvest  of  personality.     This  is  the  psychological  truism  outlined 
in  the  Scriptures  where  it  says:  ''As  a  man  soweth,  so  also  shall 
he  reap."     But  if  you  and  I  have  not  in  the  past  always  sown 
seeds  of  such  a  nature  that  our  harvest  today  is  desirable,  we  need 
not  despair;  the  harvest  of  your  garden  this  year  does  not  de- 
termine the  harvest  for  next  year.    Man  is  every  day,  every  hour, 
yes,  every  minute,  creating  and  re-creating  his  personality,  life 
and  destiny.    No  undesirable  personality  is  hopeless.     No  physical 
disease  or  mental,  psychic  or  spiritual  problem  is  beyond  solution. 

A  well  trained,  intelligent  architect  desires  to  build  his  home 
for  life.  He  makes  his  plan,  thinks  it  out  in  detail,  pictures  its 
utility,  the  possibility  of  his  being  able  to  improve  it.  Having 
satisfied  himself  that  his  plan  is  as  good  as  he  can  make  it,  he 
chooses  well  the  material,  that  it  may  be  of  good  quality,  lasting, 
enduring.  He  chooses  the  most  favorable  location  and  environ- 
ment. His  work  completed,  is  a  visible,  detailed  picture  of  his 
good  judgment  or  want  of  it.  His  finished  home  will  be  vastly 
different  from  that  of  the  man  who  gives  practically  no  thought 
to  the  design,  chooses  poor  material,  and  throws  it  together  in  the 


34  LESSON    NO.    4 

spirit  that  anything  is  good  enough,  just  so  it  serves  the  purpose. 
The  intelligent,  trained  individual  who  gives  undivided  atten- 
tion to  his  task,  each  task  always  conforming  to  a  great  life  pur- 
pose or  ideal,  may  be  likened  to  what  the  pyschologist  terms  a 
strong,  unified,  solidified  personality.  The  man  who  is  constantly 
changing  the  design  of  his  home,  is  sloven  in  the  choice  of  his 
material,  or  lets  it  just  "grow"  as  did  Topsy,  without  any  definite 
purpose  in  the  background,  may  be  likened  to  the  split  or  multiple 
personality.  Such  an  one  seldom  has  the  same  ideals  two  days  in 
succession.  The  thoughts  and  emotions  which  are  manifesting  to- 
day may  be  directly  reversed  tomorrow.  Such  an  one  is  undepend- 
able,  unsatisfactory  to  himself  and  to  the  world,  is  unable  to  know 
why  he  came  into  the  world,  what  is  his  purpose  in  life,  or  what 
may  possibly  be  his  destiny.  These  two  contrasted  individuals, 
looking  at  them  either  from  the  viewpoint  of  external  life,  with 
their  external  environment,  or  psychologically  from  the  viewpoint 
of  their  consciousness,  may  be  likened  to  the  contrasted  individuals 
spoken  of  by  the  Master,  one  of  whom  builded  his  house  upon  the 
sand,  the  other  upon  the  solid  rock.  The  unified,  strong,  positive 
personality  is  able  to  withstand  the  storms  of  life,  but  the  shifting, 
multiple  personality  is  always  a  reflection  of  environment,  on  top 
if  the  goose  honks  high,  in  the  depths  if  fortune  goes  against  him. 
Neither  the  successful  nor  the  unsuccessful  individual  may  realize 
that  luck,  fortune  and  fate  have  been  and  are  of  his  own  making, 
but  such  is  the  fact.  Each  personality  is  what  it  is  in  its  various 
phases  of  manifestation,  physical,  mental,  moral,  temperamental 
psychic  and  spiritual,  because  of  the  accumulated  consciousness; 
accumulated  consciousness  acting  creates  vibrations  which  crystal- 
lize into  body,  a  finer  form  emanating  from  the  body  as  personal 
magnetism  which  vibrates  at  a  certain  tune,  pitch  or  key.  This 
vibration  harmonizes  with  or  clashes  with  the  key  note  of  the  sub- 
conscious of  every  individual  with  whom  he  comes  in  contact. 
People  unconsciously  react  favorably  or  unfavorably  because  of 
this  .  The  favorable  or  unfavorable  reaction  of  the  world  toward 
an  individual  determines  his  environment,  the  events  of  his  life, 
and  final  destiny.  It  might  do  you  good  to  commit  the  following 
lines  to  memory  and  say  them  to  yourself  in  times  of  special  stress : 

''Don't  blame  the  world  when  things  go  wrong 

And  you  have  met  rebuff; 

Don't  censure  any  of  the  throng 

Who  choose  to  call  your  bluff; 


LESSON    NO.    4  35 

Investigate  and  you  will  find 

That  what  I  say  is  true; 

Don't  tell  me  that  this  world's  unkind, 

It  ain't  the  world,  it's  you." 
But  your  personality  is  already  accumulated.  At  least  nine- 
tenths  of  your  emotions  and  thoughts  and  feelings  are  automatic 
in  their  action, — a  part  of  the  sub-conscious  mind.  We  are  con- 
stantly building  personalities.  Each  is  constantly  building  a  life. 
And  we  are  here  now  with  a  certain  kind  of  accumulation.  Do  we 
like  the  results  of  our  work  thus  far?  Size  up  your  internal  con- 
sciousness now,  see  how  it  acts  and  reacts.  Is  it  satisfactory  to 
you?  In  some  respects  it  is;  in  others  it  is  not.  Where  it  is  sat- 
isfactory let  well  enough  alone;  where  it  is  undesirable  decide  to 
change  it.  Every  change  in  personality  is  a  matter  of  entering 
and  intelligently  re-charging  the  sub-conscious  mind  with  new 
impressions  or  commands.  Our  one  question  is, — How  can  we 
reach  the  sub-conscious  mind,  weed  out  the  old,  undesirable  accum- 
ulation, re-plant  our  mental  garden  so  that  the  fruit  of  the  future 
shall  be  exactly  what  we  want? 

Before  we  consider  how  to  reach  the  sub-conscious  mind,  let 
us  try  to  find  out  more  about  what  it  is,  where  we  got  it,  and  how 
it  operates.    A  few  analogies  may  help  us. 

The  mind  may  be  likened  to  a  man  who  has  a  very  valuable  A  Mental 
estate;  so  valuable  are  his  possessions  in  that  estate  that  to  pro-  "I^^vasion:" 
tect  it  from  undesirable  intruders  he  has  builded  a  high  wall 
about  it.  He  leaves  one  opening,  a  gate,  where  he  places  a  guard. 
To  his  guard  he  gives  certain  instructions.  He  shall  permit  en- 
trance to  no  one  except  his  friends  or  those  with  whom  he  has 
legitimate,  profitable  business.  The  owner  of  this  estate  may  be 
likened  to  the  super-conscious  mind;  the  estate  itself  to  the  sub- 
conscious; the  fence  and  the  guard  to  the  conscious  mind;  and 
the  gate  to  the  subjective.  If  the  owner  is  wise  enough  to  in- 
struct his  guard  aright  as  to  who  shall  come  in  and  who  shall  not, 
all  will  be  well.  But  if  the  instruction  be  not  wise,  or  the  guard 
get  off  duty  for  one  reason  or  another,  then  enemies  are  bound  to 
intrude.  Sometimes  the  guard  goes  to  sleep;  an  intruder  enters. 
Some  times  the  attention  of  the  guard  is  directed  to  an  event  down 
the  road;  maybe  it  is  nothing  more  than  a  dog  fight, — he  is  off 
guard.  Another  undesirable  intruder  enters.  Just  so  it  may  be 
with  you  and  me.  The  conscious  or  guard  mind  many  times  gives 
attention  to  things  that  are  not  worth  while  and  worse.     Let  the 


36  LESSON    NO.    4 

news  spread  that  a  terrible  accident  has  happened  at  a  certain 
street  corner.  The  populace  hurries  to  the  spot,  with  no  purpose 
but  to  pander  to  morbid  curiosity,  and  in  gazing  upon  horrible 
scenes  and  experiencing  the  destructive  emotion  of  horror  which 
results,  one  is  entertaining  mental  guests  of  an  undesirable  nature, 
which  may  ultimately  become  a  permanent  phase  of  the  person- 
ality. That  individual  who  is  building  a  unified,  successful  per- 
sonality is  careful  what  mental  pictures  register  in  his  conscious- 
ness; he  chooses  his  company,  and  he  entertains  nothing  in  the 
mental  sphere  which  he  would  be  ashamed  of  if  it  crystallized  out 
here  in  this  visible  sphere. 

Sometimes  this  guard  makes  mistakes ;  he  thinks  the  applicant, 
for  instance,  is  all  right,  but  has  been  deceived.  Now  and  then  an 
outlaw  thrusts  a  revolver  under  his  nose,  threatens  to  shoot  if  his 
gang  is  not  admitted.  The  intensity  of  the  fear  paralyzes  him,  and 
in  a  trice  the  whole  gang  have  entered.  Such  vicissitudes  and 
mistakes  accumulating,  many  undesirables  are  wandering  about 
that  estate.  One  elects  himself  as  leader,  gathers  his  kind  about 
him,  they  decide  to  take  possession  of  the  estate  and  oust  the  right- 
ful owner.  Just  so  in  human  personality  does  the  multiple  and 
split  personality  develop,  sometimes  to  the  point  where  an  obses- 
sion takes  charge  and  the  rightful  owner  is  temporarily  put  out  of 
house  and  home. 

Before  I  present  another  picture  illustrating  the  mind,  the 
source  of  its  accumulation  and  method  of  action,  let  me  ask  a 
question,  which  the  bright  student  always  thinks  of.  If  the  sub- 
conscious mind  contains  all  knowledge,  all  power,  then  why  does  it 
ever  make  a  mistake  in  the  choice  of  its  actions  and  manifestations  ? 
I  answer:  the  sub-conscious  mind  is  not  the  chooser;  briefly  stated, 
the  law  of  the  sub-conscious  mind  is  SUGGESTION,  nothing  more 
and  nothing  less.  You  accumulate  most  of  your  sub-consciousness 
from  the  thoughts  in  the  conscious  mind.  In  experiencing  in  this 
external  realm  your  conscious  mind  receives  impressions;  it  takes 
them  up,  works  them  out,  reasons,  judges,  doubts  and  argues  about 
them,  and  finally  draws  a  conclusion.  The  conclusion  is  handed 
down  to  the  sub-conscious  mind,  where  it  is  taken  up,  worked  out 
according  to  the  law  of  suggestion,  and  the  result  is  the  logical 
outcome  of  the  conclusion  which  was  formed  by  the  conscious 
mind, — be  that  good  or  bad,  for  health  or  for  disease,  for  happi- 
ness or  unhappiness,  success  or  failure.  The  sub-conscious  mind 
hands  back  as  a  reaction  that  which  the  conscious  mind  worked 


LESSON    NO.    4  37 

out  in  action.     In  short,  the  conscious  mind  acts,  the  sub-conscious 
mind  reacts.    Let  us  draw  a  picture  of  how  it  works  in  this  way. 

In  the  business  of  living  you  are  manufacturing  personality,  How 
and  you  may  be  likened  to  a  manufacturer  who  has  builded  his  J^°^^^*^ 
factory,  hired  his  workmen,  and  has  his  business  going  smoothly.  "Manu- 
We  will  say  he  is  a  manufacturer  of  silken  fabrics.  The  manu-  ^actured" 
facturer  himself  acts  as  his  own  salesman,  goes  into  the  business  Visibility: 
world,  meets  the  retail  trade,  finds  out  what  are  the  demand, 
takes  orders,  goes  to  the  telephone,  telephones  in  to  the  head  of 
the  manufacturing  department  to  make  up  so  many  yards  of  one 
kind  of  silk,  so  many  yards  of  another  kind.  The  man  who  re- 
ceives the  order  does  not  question  its  wisdom;  that  is  not  his  busi- 
ness. The  salesman  determines  that.  AH  he  does  is  to  telephone 
orders  to  the  superintendents  of  the  various  departments  who  in 
turn  give  orders  to  the  various  workmen  on  the  different  looms, 
and  the  order  down  to  the  last  yard  as  telephoned  in  by  the  manu- 
facturer is  produced  and  delivered  to  the  trade.  Just  so  it  is 
with  us.  Our  conscious  minds  meet  and  contact  this  external 
realm,  think,  reason  and  judge  about  what  it  seems  to  demand, 
and  hand  our.  conclusions  down  to  the  sub-conscious  mind  in  the 
form  of  orders.  Our  thoughts,  feelings  and  emotions  are  tele- 
phoned down  to  the  heads  of  departments,  taken  exactly  as  we 
give  them,  and  worked  out  to  their  logical  conclusion.  If  the 
manufacturer  makes  mistakes  in  his  orders,  does  not  have  good 
judgment  as  to  the  demand  and  supply,  accumulates  a  bunch  of 
worthless,  unsalable  material  and  runs  short  on  the  salable,  his 
business  soon  goes  into  the  hands  of  a  receiver  and  he  is  pro- 
nounced a  failure.  Just  so  it  is  with  you  and  me.  We  are  in  the 
business  of  life.  If  we  meet  the  requirements,  the  demands, 
wisely,  build  solidly  and  substantially,  permanently,  according  to 
the  law  of  our  being,  we  will  be  counted  a  success. 

Again,  the  mind  of  man  may  be  likened  to  a  camera.  There  One  Source 
is  inside  that  camera  a  very  sensitive  plate  upon  which  an  impres-  ^ 
sion  is  made  the  instant  it  is  exposed.  Being  properly  protected, 
the  shutter  closed,  no  picture  is  taken,  but  the  instant  the  shutter 
is  opened,  some  sort  of  a  picture  is  registered  upon  the  sensitive 
plate,  and  the  character  of  the  picture  is  to  the  last  detail  deter- 
mined by  the  scene  which  is  before  it.  Imagine  a  photographer 
taking  his  camera  into  the  country  to  get  some  choice  pictures. 
How  unspeakably  foolish  he  would  be  to  open  the  shutter  with- 
out 'having  chosen  his  scene,  or  even  open  it,  making  a  continual 


38 


LESSON    NO.    4 


Standards 

of 

"Success:" 


exposure,  walking  along  a  country  road.  Anyone  can  see  what  a 
composite,  conglomerate,  uninteresting  bunch  of  films  would  be 
developed.  Anyone  attempting  to  exhibit  such  an  accumulation 
would  either  be  unable  to  secure  intelligent  consideration,  or  would 
even  be  laughed  at.  One  picture  wisely  chosen,  taken  exactly 
right,  developed  so  that  it  showed  superior  points  over  anything 
of  its  kind,  of  sufficient  excellence,  would  receive  the  notice  of  all 
experts  along  that  line.  Just  so  it  is  with  human  personality.  We 
are  accumulating  our  pictures, — the  sub-conscious  mind.  Every 
thought  we  think,  every  emotion  we  feel,  everything  to  which  we 
give  attention,  makes  an  exposure,  opens  the  shutter  to  its  inner 
sensitive  plate,  and  there  the  picture  is  registered.  It  is  an  exact 
pyschological  truism  that  we  have  a  tendency  to  become  like  those 
things  to  which  we  give  attention.  Are  you  positive?  Are  you 
charming?  Do  you  know  some  one  thing  better  than  anybody 
else  living?  Do  you  constantly  keep  your  thought  upon  the  highest 
and  best?  Then  you  are  a  recognized  factor  in  your  country  in 
the  time  in  which  you  live,  and  are  helping  to  determine  the  his- 
tory of  your  race.  Many  people  complain  that  they  are  unable 
to  gain  recognition  and  accomplish  things,  they  are  not  appre- 
ciated, their  lives  are  to  a  degree  failures.  Such  have  not  met 
the  demands  of  the  time,  the  age  in  which  they  live.  They  may 
have  accumulated  things  well  worth  while,  but  they  have  failed 
' '  to  put  it  across, ' '  to  conform  to  supply  and  demand.  Their  ac- 
cumulated mental  pictures,  which  equals  their  personality,  are 
not  of  the  type  that  at  their  particular  time  is  in  demand. 

There  are  two  types  of  ideals  for  life.  One  may  be  just 
meeting  the  world  successfully  and  accomplishing  things,  stand- 
ing high  in  society,  regardless  of  the  effect  of  such  a  life  upon  the 
individual.  A  higher  standard  is  to  accomplish  your  ideal,  re- 
gardless of  the  environment  in  which  it  places  you  in  this  life. 
Many  of  the  world's  geniuses  have  lived  and  died  for  principle, 
for  art,  for  science,  and  being  ahead  of  their  time,  their  work  has 
been  refused  recognition.  So  deep  is  their  love  for  their  chosen 
life  work  that  they  seem  to  care  nothing  for  the  opinions  of  men 
and  their  personal  fate.  The  greatest  example  of  service  and  sac- 
rifice which  the  world  has  ever  had  was  the  life  of  the  Christ.  It 
is  all  right  for  the  advanced  soul  who  has  risen  above  the  need  of 
a  favorable  environment  always  to  serve  and  sacrifice,  but  for  the 
beginning  student  it  is  better  to  learn  to  contact  the  world  with 
more  or  less  material  success,  being  sure  always  that  one's  thought 


LESSON    NO.    4  39 

and  endeavor  in  business  or  professional  life  is  constantly  react- 
ing for  physical,  mental  and  spiritual  growth  and  well  being.  To 
the  beginning  student  I  would  say,  in  the  choosing  of  your  life 
work  require  that  it  so  reacts  favorably  upon  one's  self,  and  at 
the  same  time  every  individual  with  whom  you  come  in  contact 
shall  be  benefited  because  of  your  chosen  life  work. 

Again,  the  sub-conscious  mind  may  be  likened  to  a  store  Apothecary, 
house,  wherein  you  have  placed  all  your  treasures.  You  once  had  gild  Bank* 
access  to  that  store  house,  entered  and  came  out  at  will,  and  closed 
and  locked  the  door,  and  were  able  to  unlock  it  again.  But  one 
day  the  door  was  inadvertently  closed,  automatically  locked,  you 
left  for  a  time,  and  while  gone  forgot  the  combination.  Return- 
ing, you  were  unable  to  open  the  door.  Time  went  on.  You  were 
as  poor  as  if  you  had  no  possessions  because  you  did  not  have  ac- 
cess to  them  nor  the  use  of  them.  Just  so  you  have  an  unlimited 
wealth  in  your  store  house  of  experience,  knowledge  and  power, 
— your  sub-conscious  mind.  And  so  have  we  all.  But  once  upon 
a  time,  long  before  the  dawn  of  history,  man  violated  some  of  the 
laws  of  his  being,  separated  himself  from  his  higher  self,  closed 
the  door  of  his  soul,  lost  the  combination,  has  lost  the  ability  to 
re-enter  it,  and  today  humanity,  having  no  access  to — or  volitional 
use  of — the  riches  of  personality,  is  woefully  limited  in  the  ability 
to  make  life  a  success,  yes, — is  poor  indeed. 

Today  man  is  separated  from  his  soul's  self,  or  sub-conscious 
mind.  To  get  back,  we  may  think  of  him  as  having  to  travel  a 
journey,  which  consists  of  three  stages;  in  other  words,  in  order 
to  reach  the  sub-conscious  mind,  man  must  use  three  principles. 
To  enter,  volitionally  operate,  weed  out  the  trash,  find  its  best 
phases,  select  and  use  wisely,  a  fourth  principle  is  required. 

Exact 
RELAXATION  plus  PASSIVITY  plus  FIXATION  OF  AT-  Mathe- 

TENTION  equals  or  may  equal  ANYTHING,  the  particular  thing  p^^^^^}^ 

at  any  given  attempted  solution  being  the  idea,  ideal,  mental  pic-  for  Reach- 

ture,  or  realization  in  consciousness  with  which  the  mind  is  dom-  JPS  the 

,  ,      .  on-  o  Sub-con- 

inated  at  the  instant  of  fixation  oi  attention.  scious 

Mind: 

From  the  analogy  of  the  storehouse :    We  are  separated  from 
our  storehouse,  the  sub-conscious  mind.     There  are  three  stages  of  Analysis 
our  journey.    Learn  relaxation,  which  is  a  physical  condition,  and  p         , 
you  have  accomplished  the  first  stage.     Now  passivity,  which  is  a 
mental  condition,  and  the  second  stage  of  your  journey  has  been 


40  LESSON    NO.    4 

passed.  Having  learned  how  to  apply  fixation  of  attention  (which 
is  perfect  concentration)  you  have  arrived  at  the  door.  But  the 
door  is  closed,  locked,  the  combination  must  be  applied  before  it 
flies  open.  That  combination  is  AUTO-SUGGESTION.  In  the 
use  of  this  formula  what  actually  happens  is  this:  Relaxation  of 
body  releases  physical  tension,  opens  up  its  various  parts  much  as 
a  sponge  which  has  been  compressed  opens  when  pressure  is  re- 
moved. Under  pressure,  place  it  in  water,  it  absorbs  almost  none, 
but  released,  all  the  interstices  are  filled.  Relaxation  releases  the 
body,  it  becomes  a  vacuum  for  energy,  and  its  equal  distribution 
over  the  body.  That  individual  who  has  attained  ability  complete- 
ly to  relax  has  attained  the  ability  quickly  to  accumulate  a  hun- 
dred per  cent  energy. 

In  attaining  ability  to  make  the  mind  passive  you  have  slowed 
down  almost  to  a  standstill  the  mental  process.  Nerve  energy  vi- 
brates only  in  response  to  thought.  It  vibrates  in  that  part  of 
the  body  to  which  attention  is  given.  Stop  the  thinking  process, 
energy  becomes  relatively  quiescent.  Energy  is  the  atmosphere  of 
the  cell  life  of  the  body.  Energy  acting  signals  to  the  cells,  cells 
take  the  signals  as  commands,  and  act  accordingly.  Quiescent 
energy  puts  body  cells  at  attention. 

Fixation  of  attention  means  that  one  idea  or  mental  picture 
dominates  the  mind  to  the  exclusion  of  thought  and  realization  in 
every  other  respect.  Fixation  of  attention  equals  perfect  concen- 
tration ;  perfect  concentration  equals  psychological  moment ;  psycho- 
logical moment  gives  a  definite  command  to  cells  of  brain,  nerves 
and  body.  Such  commands  are  power.  They  are  carried  out  and 
become  potent  factors  in  the  personality  of  the  individual  there- 
after. 

Auto-suggestion  is  the  intelligently  determined  or  chosen 
mental  picture  which  shall  dominate  the  mind  at  this  instant  of 
fixation  of  attention. 

Again,  what  actually  happens  is  this :  When  you  lie  down  and 
become  relaxed  in  body  you  are  headed  toward  the  sub-conscious 
state  of  consciousness  automatically.  That  is  the  law.  Having 
attained  relaxation,  you  are  one-third  sub-conscious.  You  are  more 
sensitive  than  when  up  and  about,  protected  by  your  conscious 
resisting  mind.  Relaxation  partially  lays  this  protecting  mind  to 
one  side.  Quieting  the  mind  in  addition  to  relaxation,  down  to 
the  point  where  you  are  practically  thinking  of  nothing^ 

"release^physical  tension,  opens  up  its  variouFparts  much  as^ 


LESSON    NO.    4  41 

two-thirds  sub-conscious;  still  more  of  the  conscious  mind  is  in 
abeyance.  Attaining  fixation  of  attention  you  are  sub-conscious. 
Fixation  of  attention  equals  sub-conscious  state  of  consciousness — 
always — that  is  the  law. 

Auto-suggestion,  or  the  character  of  the  mental  picture  which 
dominates  the  consciousness  at  the  instant  of  fixation  of  attention, 
determines  the  result  of  the  use  of  the  formula.  To  be  able  to  use 
auto-suggestion  wisely,  you  must  have  given  sufficient  intelligent 
consideration  of  your  life,  your  type,  your  personal  abilities,  to 
have  set  your  STANDARD  OF  ATTAINMENT.  Now  is  the  time 
to  begin  to  think  about  that.  What  do  you  want  to  do?  What 
would  you  like  to  have  attained  four  years  from  now  ?  What  kind 
of  an  environment  do  you  want?  At  this  point  in  the  course  of 
instructions  make  an  earnest  endeavor  to  set  a  standard  for  life. 
Have  a  purpose,  then  make  every  thought,  emotion,  and  act  con- 
form to  your  standard  and  bring  you  every  day  a  little  nearer 
home.  Study  your  life.  Are  you  frittering  away  your  time? 
Have  you  not  vaguely  sensed  or  realized  many  a  time  that  there 
were  abilities  in  you  which  you  never  have  adequately  expressed, 
things  which  you  might  have  done  which  you  never  did?  Did  you 
not  once  have  an  ideal  which  you  expected  some  day  to  accomplish, 
then  "lost  it  in  the  daily  jar  and  fret," — and  do  you  ''now  live 
idle  in  a  vague  regret?"  If  you  had  had  just  a  little  more  en- 
couragement from  the  right  person,  at  the  right  time,  in  the  right 
way,  how  different  life  would  have  been  for  you.  Well,  ' '  we  always 
may  be  what  we  might  have* been."  But,  there  are  certain  require- 
ments for  success,  the  first  one  of  which  is,  decide  definitely  what 
you  want  to  do.  Get  it  definitely  and  clearly  in  mind,  then  order 
your  life,  and  your  environment,  so  that  each  day  you  are  prov- 
ing to  yourself  that  you  can  to  a  degree  be  and  accomplish  that 
which  you  idealize.  Do  not  depend  upon  others  for  encourage- 
ment. Never  give  way  to  discouragement.  Genius  is  ninety  per 
cent  hard  work.  The  successful  life  means  definite,  forceful,  pur- 
poseful adherence  to  an  ideal. 

Wliat  is  your  type  ?  What  is  your  ability,  what  is  that  thing 
which  of  all  who  live  you  are  the  one  by  whom  that  task  can  best 
be  done  in  the  right  way?  What  is  that  work  which  in  the  doing 
you  would  be  so  happy  that  you  would  gladly  pay  for  the  privilege 
of  doing  it,  and  which  would  so  fill  your  life  that  though  every 
individual  whom  you  love  should  be  taken  from  you,  you  could 


42  LESSON    NO.    4 

still  arise   each  morning  content  just  to   pray,   "Let  me   do   my 
work",  and  life  be  complete  when  that  one  prayer  is  answered. 
Self      ^  You  can  determine  your  task  by  going  into  a  room  alone,  lock 

na  vsis .  jQ^Y  door,  be  sure  you  shall  not  be  disturbed,  lie  down,  relax  in 
body,  quiet  your  mind,  and  then  ask  your  soul  or  higher  self 
to  show  you  why  and  for  what  purpose  you  were  sent  into  this 
school  of  experience.  What  do  you  in  your  heart  of  hearts  want 
to  do  and  be?  Wait  awhile,  expecting,  believing,  trusting  that 
your  soul  will  show  you  the  way.  In  such  a  state  of  mind  you  are 
subjective,  able  to  look  two  ways,  back  into  the  conscious,  external 
world,  and  over  into  the  sub-conscious.  You  can  see  your  real 
soul  self  and  see  how  it  is  cooperating  with  or  failing  to  cooper- 
ate with  the  world.  It  is  possible  by  this  means  for  you  to  get 
acquainted  with  your  real  self,  and  find  the  real  purpose  for 
which  you  ought  to  live. 

The  sub-conscious  mind  is  the  storehouse  of  experience.  We 
are  adding  to  it  all  the  time.  Every  thought,  feeling  and  emotion 
changes  its  sum  total,  strengthening  some  phases,  weakening  others. 
You  are  building  character  and  personality  every  minute.  You 
reach  your  sub-conscious  mind  every  time  you  think.  Ordinary 
daily  thought  makes  slight  impressions  and  gives  corresponding 
slight  reactions  in  change  of  personality.  Intense  emotions  make 
stronger  impressions  with  corresponding  strong  reactions  and  modi- 
fications of  personality.  This  daily  thought  and  emotion  is  the 
tool  which  the  average  personality  uses  for  growth  and  develop- 
ment. Such  growth  and  development  must  of  necessity  be  gradual. 
/  But  the  student  who  desires  quick  changes  and  rapid  growth  and 
I/'  would  accomplish  those  things  which  only  a  solid,  substantial,  uni- 
fied personality  can  accomplish,  should  use  this  formula  given 
above. 

The  analogy  of  the  garden  and  the  sub-conscious  mind: 
Kelaxation  and  passivity  act  in  the  garden  of  your  mentality 
and  personality  the  same  as  weeding  out  the  old  last  year's  trash 
from  the  garden  and  cultivating  the  soil  ready  to  plant  new  seeds 
for  this  year's  crop.  The  standard  applied  in  auto-suggestion  de- 
termines the  kind  of  seed  which  you  shall  plant,  which  ultimately 
determines  the  kind  of  crop  which  you  gather.  A  clear,  fixed, 
definite,  instantaneous  mental  conception  or  mental  picture  always 
means  that  a  mental  seed  has  been  planted,  and  the  ultimate  harv- 
est will  be  the  logical  conclusion  or  natural  worked  out  process  or 
visible  crystallized  reflection  of  the  mental  picture. ,   When  you 


LESSON    NO.    4  43 

plant  seeds  in  a  garden  you  cover  them  over,  water  and  tend  them, 
and  Nature  does  the  rest.  Just  so,  in  your  mental  garden,  plant 
the  seed,  conform  to  the  law  of  its  growth,  Nature  does  the  rest, 
and  it  bears  fruit  according  to  its  kind.  After  you  have  planted 
a  mental  picture,  you  do  not  need  to  go  and  dig  it  up  every  day 
to  see  whether  it  is  sprouting.  No  gardener  would  do  that.  He 
trusts  and  expects  Nature  to  show  the  sprout  above  ground  in  due 
time,  that  the  stalk  will  gradually  grow  and  finally  flower  and 
bear  fruit.  So  should  you  in  your  mental  garden.  Trust  that 
your  standard  shall  be  fulfilled,  that  your  mental  seed  is  grow- 
ing. Every  time  it  comes  to  your  mind  to  question  whether  that 
may  have  been  accomplished,  dismiss  it,  saying  to  yourself,  "That 
has  been  fixed  long  ago."  Complete  trust,  which  gives  a  soul  ex- 
pectation, always  produces  realization  in  kind. 

Daily  at  a  regular  time,  practice  the  formula.  In  a  room  Formula 
alone,  lie  down  flat  on  your  back,  preferably  on  a  hard  surface,  no  S^, 
pillow  under  the  head,  feet  separated  about  fourteen  inches,  hands 
extended  from  the  shoulders,  palms  up.  Let  go.  Introspect.  Try 
to  feel  and  realize  that  from  the  crown  of  your  head  to  the  soles 
of  your  feet,  to  the  core  of  your  being,  that  you  are  letting  go. 
Say  out  loud  to  yourself,  "Let  go."  Even  the  advanced  student 
or  master  does  not  despise  the  power  of  the  spoken  word.  Having 
spoken,  try  to  realize  until  you  gain  a  physical  response  to  your 
mental  suggestion.  Speak,  then  attempt  for  a  moment  to  realize, 
— speak  again,  and  so  on,  seven  times.  Move  about  a  bit;  assume 
the  first  position;  again  seven  times;  again  move;  back  to  first 
position,  seven  times, — repeating  the  word,  and  attempt  at  realiza- 
tion. This  is  enough  for  the  beginner.  Maybe  you  don't  succeed 
at  first.  Neither  does  the  beginner  in  music,  who  begins  his  practice 
on  the  piano.  But  with  every  successive  effort  he  becomes  more 
skilled,  until  with  diligent  practice,  he  becomes  a  skilled  musician. 
Just  so  will  you,  through  continued  and  diligent  effort,  become 
able  to  play  upon  your  body  and  gain  the  results  desired. 

Attaining  passivity  is  a  very  simple  process  and  may  be  best  Formula 
accomplished  by  imagining  (imagination  is  the  first  stage  of  crea-  passivitv 
tion)  that  you  are  in  an  unlimited,  unending,  unmodified  ocean 
of  fog  or  grayness.  There  is  in  this  ocean  of  grayness  just  you, 
and  nothing  else.  This  is  equal  to  blanking  the  mind,  and  is  a 
sure  cure  for  insomina.  Make  your  mind  a  complete  blank,  and 
the  first  thing  you  know  it  is  next  morning. 

Relaxation  plus  passivity  equals  the  subjective  state  of  con- 


44  LESSON    NO.    4 

seiousness.  The  subjective  mind  is  the  tramp  mind.  It  has  a 
tendency  to  go  where  it  will  and  do  what  it  wishes.  In  your  at- 
tempt to  gain  passivity  your  only  difficulty  will  be  the  automatic, 
unbidden  inrushing  of  mental  guests,  which  are  not  worth  while  to 
entertain.  Sometimes  they  are  very  insistent  in  their  demands 
for  expression,  but  use  your  will  and  one  by  one  turn  them  to  one 
side  until  finally  the  last  one,  discouraged,  leaves  and  your  mental 
machinery  is  free  to  rest  in  complete  inactivity. 
Methods  of  The  first  and  simplest  method,  and  easiest  to  attain,  is  medita- 

Concentra-  tive  concentration,  which  is  holding  the  mind  upon  one  line  of 
thought  without  allow^ing  it  to  drift  into  something  foreign  to  the 
chosen  line.  A  fine  subject  for  meditative  concentration,  which 
also  redounds  in  spiritual  growth,  is  the  life  work  and  philosophy 
of  the  Master.  Having  taken  that  as  your  subject,  in  your  mind 
wander  about  the  scenes  in  Palestine  with  the  Master  as  He  walked 
among  the  multitudes  and  taught,  telling  stories,  then  withdraw- 
ing into  the  mountains  with  His  disciples, — hear  His  words,  realize 
His  philosophy,  feel  His  personality,  in  short,  walk  with  Him  and 
talk  with  Him.  That  is  meditative  concentration.  But  if  you 
allow  thoughts  and  meditations  foreign  to  that  subject  to  come  in, 
you  have  not  accomplished  meditative  concentration.  The  possi- 
bilities of  growth  in  this  type  of  concentration  only  are  not  to  be 
limited. 

Here  are  a  few  methods  of  drilling  the  mind,  which  are  only 
mental  exercises  and  serve  the  same  purpose  as  a  physical  exercise. 
The  physical  exercise  develops  the  fibre  of  your  muscle,  the  mental 
exercise  develops  the  fibre  of  your  brain.  Physical  exercise  ac- 
cumulates power  which  may  be  applied  at  will.  Just  so  with 
mental  exercise.  Once  gaining  the  ability  to  concentrate  the  at- 
tention upon  one  thing  you  have  more  power  of  concentration 
upon  any  subject.  Listen  with  undivided  attention  to  the  tick  of 
a  clock.  Hold  your  mind  upon  it.  Just  tick-tock,  tick-tock,  no 
intruding  thought,  just  continually  listening  to  the  tick-tock.  Sec- 
ond, in  the  palm  of  one  hand  make  gentle  pressure  with  the  end  of 
the  thumb  of  the  other  hand.  Close  your  eyes,  center  your  at- 
tention upon  the  point  of  pressure.  Move  the  hand  slightly  to 
help  focus  the  attention.  Continue  the  drill  a  few  moments,  and 
you  w^ill  find  an  ever  increasing  ability  to  hold  out  foreign  or 
tramp  thoughts.  Third,  concentrate  upon  a  mental  picture,  cre- 
ated in  the  imagination,  for  instance,  a  word  on  a  black  back 
ground  written  in  white  letters.     A  cross  of  light  upon  a  black 


LESSON    NO.    4  45 

background,  created  in  your  mind's  eye.  Eyes  closed,  see  it  ment- 
ally, of  a  certain  size  and  shape,  never  allowing  it  to  vary  or  assume 
different  shapes  and  sizes.  These  are  all  mental  gymnastics  and 
have  only  one  purpose,  and  that  is,  strengthening  the  mind,  and 
power  of  concentration. 

To  be  able  to  create  and  hold  mental  pictures  one  must  have 
the  tool  or  medium  by  which  they  are  brought  into  existence,  and 
that  is  nerve  energy.  The  formula  above  given  is  universal  in  its 
application,  and  by  its  continued  consistent  use  you  can  accomplish 
anything  that  you  can  idealize  to  the  perfection  of  your  own  special 
type.  If  you  are  depleted  in  energy  the  first  use  you  can  make  of 
the  formula  is  for  recuperation,  and  the  formula  as  it  so  applies 
reads  like  this: 

RELAXATION  plus  PASSIVITY  plus  FIXATION  OF  AT- 
TENTION equals  RECUPERATION  the  instant  the  mind  is  dom- 
inated by  the  realization  of  recuperation. 

This  realization  is  best  accomplished  by  introspection,  watch- 
ing the  cells  of  the  body,  getting  acquainted  with  their  minds,  talk- 
ing to  them  as  pals  and  associates.  Then  imagine  that  you  with 
them  are  immersing  yourself  in  a  well  of  energy.  When  at  first 
you  step  in,  it  is  only  ankle  deep,  but  the  farther  you  go  the 
higher  it  arises  and  when  the  body  becomes  immersed  to  the  eyes 
there  is  an  instant  of  unconsciousness  and  just  as  a  person  who  is 
being  baptized,  you  are  quickly  immersed,  come  up  again,  hav- 
ing absorbed  your  quota  of  energy, — you  are  recuperated.  This 
formula  is  unconsciously  used  more  or  less  perfectly  by  one  who 
drops  into  a  doze,  and  awakens  refreshed  with  a  new  day  ahead 
of  him. 

The  bright  student  at  this  point  puts  two  and  two  together 
and  asks:  Is  the  purpose  of  this  formula  just  recuperation?  Yes. 
Is  the  purpose  of  normal  sleep  recuperation,  also?  Yes.  We  have 
heard  that  things  which  equal  the  same  thing  are  equal  to  each 
other.  Can  the  formula  take  the  place  of  sleep?  My  answer  is. 
Yes  and  No.  In  our  present  state  of  development  it  can  be  used 
to  great  advantage  temporarily  in  emergencies  where  one  is  com- 
pelled to  lose  sleep  night  after  night.  A  condition  of  recuperation 
can  be  maintained  which  would  be  impossible  to  the  untrained 
student  along  this  line,  but  we  observe  in  our  experiments  that 
the  continued  use  of  the  formula,  while  it  produces  an  abundance 
of  energy,  it  throws  the  conscious  mind  in  abeyance  and  produces 


46  LESSON    NO.    4 

perpetual  subjectivity,  in  which  state  of  mind  the  student  is  not 
able  to  meet  the  external  world  successfully. 

Speaking  of  normal  sleep,  I  almost  believe, — I  am  not  sure, — 
that  there  are  two  psychological  moments  for  recuperation  in  the 
lives  of  all  of  us,  every  twenty-four  hours.  One  is  the  instant  of 
dropping  asleep.  We  all  experience  in  going  to  sleep  a  state  of 
mind  wherein  we  are  observing  the  details  of  a  dream.  Something 
startles  us,  we  are  conscious  of  the  external  world, — we  wonder 
whether  we  have  been  asleep.  We  decide  that  we  have  not.  And 
yet,  at  the  same  time,  while  we  are  arguing  with  ourselves,  we  are 
seeing  the  mental  picture  or  dream.  This  is  the  approach  to  the 
psychological  moment,  when  we  slip  from  the  conscious  into  the 
purely  sub-conscious  mind.  At  this  instant,  the  degree  of  the 
completeness  of  the  unconscious  use  of  the  formula  of  relaxation, 
plus  passivity,  then  the  attention  upon  sub-conscious  experience, 
determines  the  degree  of  recuperation  which  results.  The  next 
psychological  moment  is  the  reverse  mental  process,  the  instant  of 
coming  to  consciousness  on  awakening.  I  personally  believe  that 
the  intervening  period  in  sleep  has  other  purposes  than  recuper- 
tion. 
2"^T^  You  now  have  a  comprehension  of  the  requirements  for  re- 

Distraction:  cuperation  from  a  physical  point  of  view  as  outlined  in  the  first 
lesson,  and  know  something  about  how  to  use  the  formula  for  en- 
tering the  sub-conscious  mind  for  quick  recuperation.  But  re- 
cuperation is  not  the  only  requirement.  To  be  able  to  maintain 
a  recuperated  condition  every  hour  of  the  day  while  living  a  stren- 
uous life,  is  required  if  one  is  to  accomplish  big  things  in  this  world. 
It  is  necessary  to  be  able  to  maintain  a  sufficiently  relaxed  mental 
attitude  while  working  so  that  you  are  using  just  the  energy  nec- 
essary to  accomplish  the  given  task,  saving  the  rest  for  subse- 
quent need.  A  good  truism  is  this:  It  isn't  work,  it  is  want  of  >^ 
relaxation  that  kills.  I  have  had  people  tell  me  they  had  over-  ^^ 
worked,  when  their  accomplishments  have  been  comparatively 
small.  It  was  not  that  they  were  overworked  but  that  they  had 
worked  wdth  a  wrong  mental  attitude  and  consequent  physical 
tension  which  tied  up,  used  up,  and  wasted  the  energy,  causing 
extreme  weariness  and  depletion.  Some  folks  go  to  town  to  buy 
a  spool  of  thread  and  come  back  exhausted.  It  is  a  mental  attitude. 
Such,  unconsciously  assume  that  they  are  going  to  town  today, 
must  prepare  the  dinner  before  leaving,  because,  you  know,  '  *  I  am 
always  worn  to  a  frazzle  every  time  I  go  into  a  crowd."     Such  a 


LESSON    NO.    4  47 

mental  attitude  is  negative  and  causes  energy  to  ooze  out.  Take 
a  positive  reversed  mental  attitude,  determined  to  become  a  mag- 
net for  the  attraction  of  energy  and  that  every  situation  v^ill 
strengthen  and  revive,  show  you  some  new  truth,  enlarge  your 
consciousness,  comprehension,  develop  your  character  and  person- 
ality. By  studying  how  to  assume  the  right  kind  of  a  mental  at- 
titude we  can  make  every  situation  and  event  profitable.  If  you 
are  habitually  tired,  learn  how  to  use  your  odd  moments  for  re- 
cuperation. You  approach  an  elevator,  it  goes  up  just  before 
you  arrive.  Don't  fume  and  fret  until  it  returns,  declaring  that 
everything  has  gone  wrong  all  day,  but  relax,  if  alone  close  your 
eyes,  turn  your  consciousness  inward,  and  expect  and  realize  a 
wave  of  recuperation.  You  are  doing  your  morning  work.  You 
turn  the  water  faucet, — recuperate  while  the  water  runs.  You 
ring  a  door  bell,  recuperate  until  the  maid  opens  the  door.  Have 
you  heretofore  taken  your  cares  to  bed  with  you,  wound  them  up 
in  the  pillow  and  put  them  under  your  head?  Determine  to  do  it 
no  more.  When  lying  down  at  night  realize  that  nothing  external  ^ 
can  be  done  about  those  troubles  until  tomorrow,  that  most  prob- 
lems solve  themselves,  that  if  you  quietly  go  to  sleep,  giving  your  . 
soul  the  suggestion  to  solve  the  problem  for  you,  and  then  be- 
lieve that  it  shall  be  done,  you  will  be  surprised  how  the  kinks  of 
life  will  smoothe  out,  how  your  health  will  improve,  your  environ- 
ment change  for  the  better,  and  finally  you  will  awaken  some 
morning  to  find  that  your  problems  have  been  solved,  that  life  is 
running  smoothly,  and  you  are  glad  every  day  just  to  be  alive 
and  to  do  your  work.  If  a  trouble  comes,  turn  up  the  corners  of 
your  mouth,  lighten  your  own  atmosphere,  relax  the  muscles  of 
your  face,  smile,  give  yourself  the  suggestion  that  you  are  able  to  // 
meet  any  problem,  and  you  will  be.  Such  mental  attitudes  save 
energy  and  ultimately  you  get  in  the  habit  of  being  so  charged 
with  energy  that  you  have  snap,  vim,  go  and  pep  and  inclinations 
which  will  make  life  a  success. 

If  you  have  followed  me  thus  far  you  can  see  why  peaceful  i^ 
thoughts  upbuild  and  emotions  tear  down;  you  know  that  nerve 
energy  acts  and  vibrates  according  to  the  mind,  and  finally  crystal- 
lizes into  body  tissue  and  brain  cells  in  that  part  of  body  to  which 
attention  has  been  consciously  or  unconsciously  given.  You  can 
now  appreciate  why  Hope,  Faith  and  Confidence  operate  in  such 
a  way  as  to  bring  about  the  thing  hoped  for,  why  fear  produces 


48 


LESSON    NO.    4 


Your 
Thought 
Clothed    in 
Nerve 
Energy 
Is  Always 
At  Work: 


Conscious 
Directing 
of  Energy 
and 
Thought: 


Method: 


disease,  why  enthusiasm  gets  results,  and  the  law  by  which  the 
prayer  of  faith  is  answered. 

When  you  learn  how  to  maintain  a  recuperated  condition  you 
have  an  abundance  of  nerve  energy  which  is  the  force  or  tool 
which  the  soul  must  have  to  do  and  be.  Your  next  step  is  to  see 
to  it  that  that  energy  so  operates  in  your  body  that  it  will  melt 
away  any  disease  from  which  you  may  be  suffering  and  continu- 
ally raise  your  standard  of  physical  perfection.  Remember  here 
again  that  concentration  is  the  secret  of  success,  and  that  energy 
is  going  to  vibrate  in  your  body  according  to  the  concentrated 
mental  picture,  and  the  vibration  will  correspond  in  its  intensity 
to  the  degree  to  which  you  are  able  to  concentrate  your  mind  upon 
a  mental  picture  or  realization. 

In  treating  oneself  for  disease  it  is  usually  wise  for  the  be- 
ginner to  treat  the  body  as  a  whole,  from  the  head  downward. 
Here  is  the  method:  Placing  the  tips  of  the  fingers  on  the  fore- 
head, move  them  slightly  but  briskly  from  the  center  outward, 
centering  the  attention  underneath  the  fingers,  concentrating  on 
the  accumulation  of  bodily  electricity  in  the  head.  Continue  this 
concentration  until  you  feel  a  mild  shock  whenever  the  fingers  are 
moved.  Then  begin  with  a  slow  movement  of  the  fingers  down- 
ward over  the  face,  passing  gently  down  over  the  body,  following 
the  fingers  with  the  attention,  always  trying  to  feel  the  magnetism 
or  electricity  distributing  and  applying  equally.  Coming  down  as 
far  as  the  hands  will  reach  comfortably,  quickly  come  back  to  the 
forehead,  repeating  the  process,  gradually  gaining  in  speed  as  the 
realization  of  applied  magnetism  increases,  until  the  energy  will 
go  in  distinct  waves  over  and  over  the  body.  Your  auto  suggestion 
may  be  this :  ' '  From  the  crown  of  my  head  to  the  soles  of  my  feet, 
all  over  my  body,  to  the  core  of  my  being,  I  am  perfect  health." 
Realize  a  moment,  then  again  say,  "Perfect  health."  Always  con- 
tinue auto-suggestion  until  you  feel  that  you  have  gained  a  physical 
response  to  mental  operation.  Later,  after  you  have  gained  the 
ability  to  hold  the  attention  upon  a  chosen  mental  picture,  you 
can  treat  specific  parts  of  your  body  which  may  be  especially  af- 
fected. For  inflammation  and  foreign  growths,  the  mental  atti- 
tude that  the  circulation  is  increasing  in  that  part  of  the  body  and 
nerve  energy  is  vibrating,  that  this  process  is  melting  away  the 
abnormal  condition,  and  picture  it  as  gradually  resuming  that  of 
perfect  health.  Add  to  this  a  constant  mental  attitude  of  inde- 
pendence of  disease,  attempting  always  to  lift  yourself  out  of  the 


LESSON    NO.    4  49 

disease  thought  or  habit.     This  will  reenforce  your  concentration 
practice,  and  you  should  quickly  get  well. 

Having  gained  energy  and  health  you  are  now  ready  to  turn 
your  attention  toward  making  your  life  work  a  success.  First, 
definitely  and  whole  heartedly  choose  your  business  or  profession. 
Take  time  enough  and  pray  earnestly  enough  to  be  sure  you  have 
chosen  aright.  Use  your  formula  to  see  your  whole  life  work  per- 
formed in  detail,  watch  yourself  as  you  associate  with  the  world  in 
your  particular  chosen  line,  find  out  what  are  its  requirements  for 
success  so  far  as  you  personally  are  concerned,  in  your  ijaner  con- 
sciousness, and  personal  attainments,  then  the  requirements  for 
contacting  the  world  successfully;  then  consider  no  price  too  high 
to  pay  to  attain  it,  and  let  every  hour  of  your  life  be  a  step  towai:d 
your  goal.  You  will  find  that  you  can  never  do  and  be  all  that 
you  can  idealize;  no  one  can,  no  matter  how  developed  the  con- 
sciousness, even  that  which  is  to  us  the  master  mind.  Vision  al- 
ways goes  ahead  of  attainment,  but  we  must  have  the  vision,  and 
it  is  indeed  true  that  without  the  vision  we  perish.  My  own  half 
finished  work  may  illustrate  the  road  which  you  will  probably 
have  to  travel,  no  matter  what  line  of  endeavor  you  may  choose. 
Before  I  entered  public  work  I  was  using  the  formula  to  develop 
the  ability  to  do  the  work  that  I  expect  some  time  to  be  able  to  do. 
I  was  timid,  nervous,  reticent,  retiring,  dreaded  public  opinion, 
in  praise  or  condemnation.  But  I  realized  that  if  I  was  to  do  the 
work  which  my  higher  self  told  me  I  ought  to  do,  I  would  have 
to  reverse  my  pyschology,  and  in  concentration  I  did.  I  pictured 
in  my  mind's  eye  large  crowds,  five  thousand  people,  all  waiting 
for  me  to  speak,  every  eye  on  me.  Even  then,  alone  in  the  silence, 
my  nerves  would  give  way,  and  sometimes  I  would  have  to  get 
up  and  admit  to  mj^self  that  my  judgment  told  me  it  couldn't  be 
done.  But  it  could  be,  it  must  be.  I  must  be  balanced  and  poised, 
an  eloquent,  fluent,  telling  speaker.  After  sufficient  concentration 
and  preparation  I  went  into  my  first  town,  advertised  a  lecture, 
spent  days  concentrating  and  praying,  preparing,  expecting  at 
least  five  hundred;  but  to  my  consternation,  when  I  arrived  at 
my  place  of  meeting  at  the  appointed  hour  only  three  women  sat 
on  the  front  row.  No  more  came  in.  That  was  my  entire  audience. 
I  slipped  into  a  little  room  alone  and  asked  whether  I  should  give 
the  lecture.  The  answer  came  back,  Three  are  as  important  as 
three  hundred,  do  your  best.  I  did.  I  went  all  through  the  busi- 
ness end.     I  took  up  a  collection.     I  told  them  we  would  have  an- 


50  LESSON    NO.    4 

other  lecture  in  the  evening  and  invited  them  to  come  back  and 
bring  their  friends.  They  did  and  brought  two  others  with  them. 
My  audience  was  increasing.  I  had  five.  My  combined  collection 
was  thirty  cents,  exactly  what  I  was  worth.  It  has  been  a  long 
story  of  earnest  endeavor,  never  giving  way  one  single  moment  to 
discouragement,  constantly  idealizing  and  constantly  endeavoring 
to  realize  my  ideal.  But  I  always  keep  in  mind  that  some  day  it 
shall  be  done. 


LESSON  No.  5 

SUGGESTION 

We  are  amenable  to  the  law  of  suggestion.  No  one  gets  be- 
yond it.  Children  are  especially  sensitive  to  the  law.  The  adult 
with  an  abundance  of  nerve  energy  is  also  sensitive.  The  sensi- 
tive I  sometimes  call  the  psychic.  It  is  a  fine  thing  to  be  a  psychic 
providing  the  consciousness  is  ordered.  But  the  erratic,  emo- 
tional psychic  is  at  the  mercy  of  environment  and  suggestion. 

Extremely  emotional  states  of  mind  produce  suggestibility 
because  the  energy  of  the  body  is  vibrating  rapidly,  cells  are  rap- 
idly taking  orders,  activity  is  great,  and  the  corresponding  reac- 
tion. Here  is  a  law  which  should  be  understood  by  physicians.  A 
patient  who  is  alarmed  about  his  condition  sends  for  that  physician 
in  whom  he  has  the  most  confidence.  The  wise  physician  will  enter 
with  a  light  hearted  manner  and  atmosphere,  trying  always  to 
minimize  the  seriousness  of  the  condition,  and  after  careful  ex- 
amination will  always  do  everything  in  his  power  to  create  the 
confidence  and  expectation  of  speedy  and  complete  recovery.  The 
unwise,  old  time  physician  used  to  come  in  with  a  long  face,  a 
heavy  atmosphere,  with  extreme  dignity  and  much  pretense,  make 
his  examinations,  shake  his  head  doubtfully,  and  then  say,  "You 
are  in  pretty  bad  shape,  my  man,  and  it's  a  lucky  good  thing  you 
sent  for  me  just  when  you  did."  And  the  only  happy  phase  of 
his  verdict  was,  ''But  I  think  I  can  pull  you  through."  Some 
unprincipled  physicians  of  the  past  have  used  such  methods  to 
create  deep  respect  for  their  ability  and  hold  their  patients  as 
money  makers. 

The  ^vorld  does  not  yet  realize  the  power  of  suggestion.  In 
France  a  few  years  ago,  certain  physicians  experimented  upon 
condemned  criminals,  telling  them  they  were  to  be  bled  to  death. 
Blindfolded,  a  scratch  was  made  over  an  artery  but  no  opening; 
warm  water  gently  trickled  over  the  spot,  the  patient  thinking  it 
to  be  his  life  blood  oozing  out.  Progressive  suggestions  were  given 
from  time  to  time  by  the  physicians  as  to  this  symptom  or  that 
which  should  now  appear,  and  now  death, — and  death  did  ensue, 
when  nothing  from  a  psysical  point  of  view  had  transpired.  But 
the  victim  had  died  because  a  psychological  moment  of  intense 


52  LESSON    NO.    5 

emotionalism  dominated  his  soul  expectation,  which  changed  the 
cell  action  of  the  body  and  produced  a  result.  A  few  years  ago  a 
Filipino  committed  an  offense,  was  court  martialed  and  sentenced 
to  death.  An  experiment  was  tried  upon  him.  He  was  told  that 
he  was  to  be  shot  in  the  back.  But  instead  a  sharp  blow  was  given 
him,  and  simultaneous  with  the  blow  a  gun  was  fired.  The  blow 
was  of  minor  importance,  but  the  man  dropped  over  and  died. 

The  Catholics  are  taught  that  their  sacred  shrines  and  grottoes 
have  healing  power,  and  they  have.  There  the  lame  walk,  the 
blind  see,  the  paralytic  is  restored.  Christ  truly  told  them  two 
thousand  years  ago,  ' '  Thy  faith  hath  made  thee  whole. ' '  The  heal- 
ings of  Dowieism,  Christian  Science,  New  Thought  and  all 
mental  Therapists,  are  all  accomplished  through  the  operation  of 
the  law  of  the  sub-conscious  mind.  The  Emmanuel  movement 
started  by  McComb  and  Powell,  in  Boston,  and  later  followed,  up 
successfully  by  Bishop  Fallows  in  Chicago,  and-  by  a  few  min- 
isters of  various  church  all  over  the  coutry,  operated  under  the 
same  law.  But  the  Emmanuel  people  made  one  serious  mistake. 
You  can  find  it  by  reading  McComb 's  and  Powell's  book  called 
'' Religion  and  Medicine."  They  said  there  were  two  kinds  of 
diseases,  the  physical  and  the  mental;  that  the  physical  or  organic 
ailments  needed  physical  methods  for  cure,  but  that  the  mental, 
nervous,  or  functional  ailments  could  be  cured  by  mind  power. 
And  yet  they  claimed  to  be  applying  the  law  of  Christian  healing, 
the  same  that  the  Master  used  two  thousand  years  ago.  Is  there 
any  place  in  the  New  Testament  where  it  is  recorded  that  the 
Master  asked  anyone  who  came  to  him  for  healing  whether  his 
ailment  was  organic  or  functional?  The  Emmanuel  people  re- 
quired their  applicants  to  bring  a  certificate  from  a  reputable 
physician  saying  that  their  particular  ailment  was  amenable  to 
mental  treatments.  Failing  to  get  this  certificate  a  patient  was 
turned  away  from  the  doors  of  the  Emmanuel  Clinic.  Did  the 
Christ  set  this  example?  Of  course  not.  He  just  said,  "Be  ye 
whole."  Or,  "According  to  your  faith  be  it  done  unto  thee."  Or 
"I  have  not  seen  such  faith,  no,  not  in  Israel."  And  a  miracle 
transpired.  The  Master  knew  what  He  was  talking  about  when 
He  said,  ' '  The  things  which  I  have  done,  you  can  do. ' '  And  ' '  These 
signs  shall  follow  all  those  who  believe,"  One  woman  knocked  at 
the  doors  of  the  Emmanuel  Clinic;  being  asked  for  her  certificate, 
she  had  none.  Here  doctor's  verdict  was,  her  case  was  one  re- 
quiring an  operation  upon  a  growth  in  the  abdomen.     She  was 


LESSON    NO.    5  53 

refused  admission,  but  plead  so  earnestly,  saying  that  God  would 
heal  her  if  they  would  help  a  bit,  that  her  ease  was  made  an  ex- 
ception. In  six  months  she  went  back  to  her  physician,  was  re- 
examined, the  growth  was  gone,  and  the  doctor's  diagnosis  was 
this:  "The  former  diagnosis  was  incorrect."  The  Master  once 
said,  ''Oh,  faithless  and  perverse  generation,  how  long  shall  I  be 
with  you,  and  how  long  shall  I  suffer  with  you?  Bring  him 
hither."  And  they  brought  him,  and  He  healed  him.  Does  the 
master  feel  so  about  us  today  when  we  make  such  mistakes? 

The  wise  applied  psychologist  does  not  repudiate  any  method 
of  therapy  which  does  anybody  any  good,  medical, — electrical, — 
water, — rest, — travel, — massage  or  osteopathy.  These  are  all 
methods  which  correspond  to  our  present  -accumulated  conscious- 
ness. We  have  sub-conscious  faith  in  them  and  to  the  degree  to 
which  we  gain  a  soul  expectation,  results  accrue.  But  one  and 
all  use  the  great  law  of  the  mind,  and  never  is  any  change  made 
in  the  physical  body  until  the  mind  has  been  reached  by  one  means 
or  another. 

When  the  world  recognizes  the  great  law  of  suggestion  we  will 
be  careful  of  our  conversations,  for  we  will  know  that  we  are  in- 
deed our  brother's  keeper.  The  most  common  suggestions  are 
health  and  disease  breeders.  Too  many  people  spend  hour$  visit- 
ing together,  talking  about  their  troubles  and  ailments  when  they 
/  might  be  spending  their  time  profitably.  Newspapers  publish  ac- 
counts of  crimes  and  accidents, — the  worse  the  crime  the  bigger  the 
headline.  Newsies  cry  ** Extra!"  and  inflame  the  imagination  of 
the  people,  everybody  buys  a  paper,  and  after  dinner  in  the  even- 
ing sit  down  to  relax  and  rest  and  read  the  details  of  the  worst 
phases  of  human  life;  they  go  to  bed  and  carry  all  the  sug- 
gestions which  these  offer  into  the  sub-conscious  mind,  where  they 
work  out  to  their  logical  conclusion  while  the  individual  sleeps. 
Is  it  any  wonder  that  we  are  a  mediocre  race  of  people? 

Some  people  develop  disease  through  fear  of  hereditary 
troubles.  They  have  been  told  all  their  childhood  days,  that  ''They 
are  like  their  father's  folks"  that  the  whole  family  has  died  of  lung 
trouble,  and  they  are  expected  to  do  the  very  proper  thing  of 
upholding  the  family  reputation  and  do  likewise.  Reverse  the 
action  of  the  mind  and  the  physical  habits,  get  out  of  the  family 
rut,  for  disease  is  not  inherited.  Only  temperaments  and  tend- 
encies can  be  inherited.  These  can  be  reversed  by  the  use  of  the 
will. 


54  LESSON    NO.    5 

Everything  which  I  have  said  up  to  this  point  has  been  prim- 
arily for  self  help,  and  in  treatment,  to  show  you  the  power  of 
suggestion.  We  are  ready  to  consider  the  methods,  whereby  one 
person  can  definitely  treat  another. 

The  first  method  is  what  I  call  the  Passivity  Method,  wherein 
the  patient  either  sits  in  a  chair  with  a  footstool,  so  that  every 
part  of  the  body  including  the  head  is  supported  to  enable  com- 
plete relaxation,  or  else  lies  down  upon  a  couch,  the  operator  ap- 
plying the  suggestions.  There  are  certain  requirements  on  the 
part  of  both  to  secure  quick  and  definite  results.  The  patient 
should  have  the  wish,  the  desire,  the  expectation,  faith,  hope,  and 
confidence  of  getting  well,  and  be  able  to  give  undivided  attention 
to  the  suggestions  of  the  operator.  Such  co-operation  is  very  im- 
portant for  the  healer  who  is  just  learning  how  to  operate  the  law. 
The  chief  requirements  on  the  part  of  the  operator  are  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  law  of  the  sub-conscious  mind,  ability  to  handle  his 
knowledge  practically,  with  confidence  in  himself, — and  last  but 
not  least,  persistence, — always  expecting  immediate  results,  never 
being  disappointed  if  he  does  not  get  them ;  for  the  instant  that  the 
law  is  operated  the  results  are  sure.  Repeating  suggestions  time 
and  again  with  a  short  period  for  the  realization  of  the  suggestion 
in  between,  will  finally  reach  the  sub-conscious  mind. 

Sleep  is  a  sub-conscious  state  of  consciousness.  Therefore  very 
suggestible.  It  is  especially  good  for  the  treatment  of  children. 
The  best  method  to  treat  a  child  is  to  allow  it  to  have  an  hour  of 
sleep,  then  disturb  it  gently  two  or  three  times  with  periods  of 
quieting  in  between  until  it  finally  is  startled  to  where  it  raises 
up  in  bed  and  stares  wildly  about.  At  this  point  you  have  an  op- 
portunity to  gain  its  sub-conscious  attention.  It  is  in  the  same 
state  of  consciousness  as  the  somnambulist,  which  is  a  good  psycho- 
logical condition  for  planting  suggestion.  There  is  nothing  mys- 
terious about  giving  suggestion.  Just  say  as  you  would  in  conver- 
sation, precisely  the  thing  that  you  wish  to  be  realized,  nothing 
more,  nothing  less. 

In  the  treatment  of  an  adult  I  prefer  the  period  of  going  to 
sleep.  An  amateur  can  use  this  method  by  sitting  by  the  side  of  the 
bed  of  the  patient,  conversing  quietly  until  the  patient  becomes 
very  sleepy,  then  beginning  gradually  to  offer  the  suggestions  for 
healing,  having  the  patient  attempt  to  hold  the  attention  upon  the 
words  and  the  realization  of  their  meaning,  until  finally  they  drop 
away  and  the  patient  enters  a  sound  sleep. 


LESSON    NO.    5  55 

Sometimes  the  highly  emotional  state  of  mind  offers  a  sufficient 
psychological  moment  that  the  expert  can  offer  suggestions  which 
will  get  instantaneous  results.  Hysteria  and  drug  habits,  the 
drunkard,  and  any  bad  mental  tendencies  can  be  successfully 
handled  by  the  expert  psychologist  when  the  patient  is  very  emo- 
tional. 

Suggestibility  is  the  requirement  for  successful  healing.  Re- 
ducing the  hours  of  sleep  over  a  period  of  several  days  tends  to  pro- 
duce suggestibility.  Fasting  accomplishes  the  same  purpose.  But 
these  methods  should  be  used  only  by  the  expert. 

I  used  to  use  any  or  all  of  these  methods  according  to  the 
temperament  of  my  patient.  But  I  have  come  to  the  point  where 
I  use  only  one  method,  and  that  is  sub-conscious  concentration. 
I  attempt  always  to  hold  a  mental  picture  of  perfect  health  for  my 
patient,  carrying  it  from  one  plane  of  consciousness  down  and  ever 
down,  until  finally  I  am  functioning  volitionally,  consciously,  on 
that  plane  of  consciousness  wherein  the  entity  of  disease  exists. 
I  cannot  always  as  yet  hold  a  positive  mental  attitude  in  that 
strata  of  mind,  but  to  the  degree  to  which  I  can  and  give  my 
command,  to  that  degree  is  my  command  heard  and  obeyed,  and 
the  results  are  instantaneous.  I  am  now  convinced  that  the  at- 
tainment of  this  volitional  control  of  a  hundred  per  cent  of  the 
consciousness  instead  of  one-tenth,  as  humanity  has  it  today,  is  our 
ultimate  goal.  The  difference  in  the  master  consciousness  and 
yours  and  mine  is  not  one  of  ki7id  but  of  degree  of  development 
and  unfoldment,  and  consequent  volitional  control.  That  the 
Master  operated  this  law  perfectly  became  evident  by  the  marvelous 
cures  which  transpired  in  his  presence.  All  minor  entities  were 
obedient  to  his  will.  They  recognized  Him  at  great  distances,  and 
when  the  two  insane  men  who  lived  alone  in  the  mountains  felt 
the  approach  of  the  Master  consciousness,  the  entities  of  disease 
called  out  and  asked  that  they  might  at  least  be  allowed  to  go 
into  the  body  of  a  herd  of  swine.  Their  request  was  granted  and 
the  terrified  swine  rushed  into  the  waters  and  were  drowned.  Every 
disease  has  a  psychic  personality  or  entity  as  its  vitalizing  and 
controlling  principle.  It  is  the  outsing  of  this  entity  that  is  the 
fundamental  requirement  in  the  cure  of  disease,  and  sub-conscious 
concentration  is  the  secret  of  success. 

We  have  now  covered  two  phases  of  the  action  of  consciousr  Telepathy: 
ness,  the  first  one  the  reaction  of  our  own  minds  in  thought,  feel- 
ing and  emotion  upon  ourselves,  and  the  second  one,  the  influence 


56 


LESSON    NO.    5 


Mental 
Influence : 


Vibration : 


of  one  mind  upon  another  for  the  healing  of  disease.  We  are  now 
ready  to  take  up  the  subject  of  the  inter-action  of  the  human 
consciousness,  the  influence  of  one  mind  upon  one  or  many  people. 
The  influence  of  my  mind  upon  yours,  and  yours  upon  mine,  and 
the  influence  which  we  each  have  upon  everybody  with  whom  we 
come  in  contact.  To  understand  the  phenomenon  of  such  inter- 
action you  must  understand  the  law  of  vibration.  All  manifest 
existence,  physical,  mental  and  spiritual,  is  dependent  upon  this 
law.  To  illustrate  the  law  of  creation:  Take  a  ball,  vibrate  it  suf- 
ficiently rapidly,  horizontally,  and  it  will  give  the  illusion  of  be- 
ing a  bar.  Suspend  it  from  a  string,  whirl  it  rapidly,  it  gives 
the  illusion  of  a  hoop.  Stick  a  hat  pin  in  the  side  of  a  brick  wall. 
Strike  it;  it  gives  the  illusion  of  a  fan.  And  so  forceful  is  this 
vibratory  action  that  any  softer  substance  inserted  within  the 
sphere  of  its  activity  would  instantly  be  cut  in  two. 

It  is  evident  that  everything  that  exists  in  the  physical,  mental 
or  spiritual  realm  is  a  rate  and  character  of  vibration,  and  that  its 
rate  and  character  determine  its  plane  of  manifestation.  It  is  evi- 
dent that  finer  vibrations  of  the  mental  pass  through  the  coarser 
vibrations  of  the  physical  without  either  being  disturbed;  the 
spiritual  is  still  finer,  so  the  mental  and  spiritual  can  exist  within 
the  physical,  and  do  so  exist,  and  become  the  moulds  or  magnetic 
attraction  and  repulsion  which  determine  the  character  of  physi- 
cal manifestation.  It  is  a  metaphysical  principle  that  as  within, 
so  without,  and  the  innermost,  so  the  outermost,  as  above,  so  be- 
low, as  in  the  largest,  so  the  smallest,  and  when  we  learn  the  les- 
son as  to  why  a  leaf  on  the  tree  comes  into  existence,  lives  out  its 
purpose,  and  moves  on,  we  have  learned  a  lesson  which  applies  to 
the  universe,  physical,  mental  and  spiritual. 

Here  is  a  fact  in  the  realm  of  physics,  the  science  of  music : 
The  character,  power  and  pitch  of  tones  is  determined  by  the 
volume,  length  and  number  of  sound  waves  per  second.  Take 
several  simultaneous  tones.  If  the  number  of  the  vibrations  of 
each  is  a  multiple  Of  all  the  others,  then  a  major  chord  results. 
If  the  vibrations  of  all  are  divisible  by  a  common  divisor,  then  a 
minor  chord  results.    If  neither  condition  obtains,  a  discord  results. 

These  phenomena  and  all  phenomena  are  dependent  upon  a 
universal  substance  called  vital  ether  or  living  energy.  When 
this  universal  substance  vibrates  it  responds  to  intelligence,  and 
as  said  before,  the  character  and  rate  of  its  vibration  determines 
its  plane  of  manifestation,  whether  it  shall  exist  in  the  physical, 


LESSON    NO.    5  57 

mental  or  spiritual.  Understanding  the  law  of  vibration  we  have 
the  basis  of  all  transmission  of  thought,  telepathy,  absent  treat- 
ment, psychic  and  spiritual  vision,  and  scientific  prophecy. 

A  lower  form  of  the  operation  of  this  law  is  visible  in  the 
wireless  telegraph.  A  wireless  sending  instrument  has  its  note  or 
key  of  vibratory  action,  and  all  receiving  instruments  tuned  to  the 
same  key  receive  its  messages.  All  other  fail  to  register  it.  Just 
so  in  the  mental  realm.  But  there  is  this  difference.  In  your 
mental  machine  you  have  both  a  sending  and  receiving  instrument. 
You  are  therefore  always  sending  out  great  waves  of  vibration, 
which  are  received  by  those  people  who  are  in  harmony  with  you. 
We  have  heard  it  said:  "A  thought  struck  me."  Thoughts  do 
strike  us,  and  they  have  been  sent  out  by  some  mind,  with  which 
we  are  in  rapport  or  mental  attunement.  We  also  are  receiving, 
always  sending  out  and  responding  to  vibrations  in  the  mental 
realm. 

Here  is  the  practical  lesson :  If  you  entertain  gloomy  thoughts, 
you  lower  your  rate  of  vibration  and  coarsen  its  quality.  You 
couple  up  with  all  the  grouches  in  the  community.  You  are  en- 
tertaining mental  associates  and  hobnobbing  in  the  mental  sphere 
with  people  of  whom  you  would  be  ashamed,  and  would  refuse  to 
entertain  their  physical  counterpart.  It  is  just  so  with  the  happy 
thoughts.  You  get  your  help  and  encouragement,  or  are  dragged 
down  by  your  mental  vibrations.  Strike  a  note  on  a  tuning  fork, 
a  corresponding  note  on  a  piano  will  respond  in  vibration  and 
sing.  Just  so  it  is,  a  vibration  in  the  mental  realm  sets  into  action 
its  kind. 


LESSON  No.  6 

PSYCHIC  PHENOMENA  AND  SPIRITUAL  DEVELOPMENT 

The  Aura:  Psychics  tell  us  that  different  kinds   of  thoughts  producing 

different  rates  and  characters  of  vibration  result  as  different  colors 
in  the  human  aura.  It  is  said  that  the  prevailing  color  of  one's 
aura  is  determined  by  the  predominant  phases  of  his  sub-conscious 
activity,  but  that  there  are  always  varying  colors  flaring  up  and 
then  dropping  back  again,  due  to  the  immediate  emotions,  which 
exist  for  a  time  and  then  quiet  down.  The  baser  or  more  sensuous 
the  prevailing  emotion,  the  darker  the  aura  has  a  tendency  to  be- 
come. The  individual  of  prevailing  sensuous  nature  has  a  dark 
red,  muddy  aura,  while  with  the  individual  who  thinks  thoughts 
of  sweetness  and  purity  with  highly  intellectual  and  spiritual  de- 
velopment, the  colors  become  lighter  and  finer  and  more  beautiful 
to  look  upon.  Very  superior  individuals  create  an  aura  of  ex- 
tremely light  colors  with  a  prevailing  yellow,  denoting  intellectual 
unfoldment.  Only  the  perfect  master  mind  is  able  to  create  the 
pure  white  light  of  the  spirit,  unmodified.  This  law  must  have 
been  understood  throughout  the  ages,  for  artists  who  have  painted 
the  head  of  the  Christ  have  placed  the  halo  of  white  about  his  head. 

Growth:  If  you  are  to  grow  and  continually  raise  your  standard  you 

must  know  how  to  get  in  touch  with  or  tuned  to  the  higher  vibra- 
tions, in  order  to  get  your  assistance  from  a  desirable  source,  in- 
stead of  one  which  drags  you  down.  Many  students  become  con- 
cerned as  to  whether  it  is  necessary  that  they  meet  a  master  mind 
in  order  to  attain  mastership.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  you  are  always 
associating  with  and  meeting  minds  of  your  own  kind,  and  there 
is  an  interchange  of  like  minds  at  all  stages  of  development.  Ad- 
vancing to  mastership,  you  inevitably  meet  the  advanced  student, 
then  the  semi-adept,  then  the  adept,  and  finally  the  master,  as 
you  proceed  on  your  way.  It  is  an  unfailing  law  that  when  the 
pupil  is  ready  the  teacher  appears.  If  you  wish  to  meet  and  come 
under  the  tutelage  of  an  expert,  prepare  yourself  and  become 
worthy  of  such  an  association,  for  you  will  always  meet  your  own. 
Just  at  this  point  let  me  illustrate  a  practical  process  by  which 
you  can  gain  a  superior  ideal.  You  have  set  your  standard.  Do 
you  wish  to  become  a  literary  expert,  or  a  writer  of  a  certain  kind 


LESSON    NO.    6  59 

of  literature?  In  order  to  tap  the  original  source,  or  that  mental 
realm  wherein  all  things  exist,  you  have  to  become  attuned  to  the 
rate  and  character  of  vibration  wherein  those  things  exist.  At- 
tunement  can  be  gained  by  the  following  process:  Having  your 
ideal  established,  begin  to  live  in  that  ideal  primarily  and  the 
external  world  and  associations  secondarily.  Continue  to  give 
sufficient  interest  and  attention  to  things  external  to  meet  this 
world  successfully,  but  environment  and  life's  experiences  should 
all  be  interpreted  as  a  means  to  the  one  end  of  accomplishing  your 
real  purpose.  Read  books  written  by  authors  who  have  been  suc- 
cessful along  your  chosen  line.  Sit  quietly,  book  in  hand  and 
meditate  upon  the  consciousness  which  the  author  must  have  had 
when  he  wrote  down  his  mental  picture.  Commit  snatches  of  it 
to  memory  to  carry  about  with  you  in  your  daily  work.  In  the 
vicissitudes  of  daily  life  refuse  to  become  hurried  or  worried,  but 
everything  you  do,  do  it  with  earnest,  deliberate  effort,  studying 
rather  how  to  make  every  movement  count  to  the  best  advantage, 
than  rushing  about  in  the  attitude  of  mind  that  the  faster  you  go 
the  more  you  are  accomplishing.  This  is  important  because  a  hur- 
ried and  flurried  mental  attitude  changes  your  vibration  and  cuts 
off  your  connection  with  the  higher  type  of  mental  vibrations. 
Keep  always  in  the  background  of  your  consciousness  that  your 
ideal  is  your  one  permanent,  dependable  associate,  permanently 
dependable  because  you  can  always  change  it  and  make  it  what 
you  want  it  to  be,  and  it  never  ceases  to  be  pliable  to  your  new 
demands. 

At  the  close  of  each  day,  sit  quietly  alone  for  a  time,  meditat- 
ing upon  your  ideal,  confidently  assuming  that  your  soul  will  place 
you  in  touch  with  desirable  mental  associates.  When  you  go  to 
sleep,  as  you  relax  and  become  passive  and  drop  into  the  sub- 
jective and  sub-conscious  condition,  hold  as  long  as  possible  the 
I y^  confident  expectation  that  while  your  conscious  mind  sleeps,  your 
sub-conscious  will  be  working  out  your  ideal.  Suggest  also  to  your- 
self that  the  first  instant  of  consciousness  on  awakening  shall  be 
dominated  with  a  realization  of  your  purpose  and  ideal.  When 
you  come  to  partial  consciousness  and  a  memory  of  your  ideal, 
instead  of  awakening  wide  awake,  just  be  quiet;  slip  back  just  a 
little  nearer  asleep,  holding  your  conscious  realization,  and  yet  in 
such  a  deep  state  of  consciousness  that  you  are  able  to  look  both 
ways,  from  the  objective  to  the  sub-conscious  realm.  In  that 
state  of  subjectivity  expect  that   literature  of  your  chosen  kind 


60 


LESSON    NO.    6 


Attune- 
ment  or 
Origina- 
tion? 


shall  be  given  you.  Sometimes  you  will  hear  it;  sometimes  it  will 
say  itself  over  in  your  mind;  no  matter  how  you  get  it  hold  on 
to  it,  but  do  not  make  the  mistake  of  expecting  that  you  will  be 
able  to  see  it  as  clearly  on  being  wide  awake  as  you  can  in  that, 
state  of  consciousness.  Always  have  paper  and  pencil  beside  you 
and  write  down  your  inspirations  even  before  you  are  wide  awake, 
for  they  have  a  tendency  to  slip  away  as  an  ordinary  dream. 

It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  the  same  poem  has  been  written 
simultaneously  by  two  individuals  a  great  distance  apart.  "When 
Darwin  wrote  his  ''Origin  of  Species,"  his  theory  of  evolution, 
and  published  it,  Wallace  reading  Darwin's  book,  was  so  struck 
by  its  likeness  to  a  manuscript  which  he  had  just  completed  that 
he  sent  his  production  to  Darwin,  and  made  no  effort  to  publish  it, 
so  nearly  was  it  a  duplicate,  both  in  contents  and  phraseology. 
There  has  been  some  contention  between  two  people  in  the  state 
of  Kansas  as  to  which  is  the  author  of  the  state  song,  as  both 
brought  it  out  practically  at  the  same  time.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
neither  one  is  the  author,  but  both  became  attuned  to  this  vibra- 
tion and  both  got  it  from  the  same  source.  Inventions  are  in  the 
air,  in  the  thought  world,  and  the  inventor  raises  his  mental  vibra- 
tions to  catch  them.  The  possibilities  for  infinite  accomplishment 
are  all  about  us  in  the  air,  and  it  is  up  to  us  to  apply  the  law  of 
attuning  to  catch  the  vibrations  which  we  desire,  rather  than 
continually  allowing  our  mental  instrument  to  be  played  up  on  by 
musicians  of  the  inferior,  ragtime  quality. 

Sensing  the  law  which  I  have  been  outlining,  you  are  gaining 
a  realization  as  to  just  why  any  individual  is  what  he  is  and  where 
he  is,  as  well  as  the  requirements  for  getting  up  and  getting  out 
of  the  rut.  It  seems  that  the  law  as  it  operates  continually  upon 
an  evolving  soul  at  first  automatically  forces  experience,  which 
automatically  enlarges  consciousness,  until  finally  the  individual, 
sensing  greater  possibilities,  accumulates  a  soul  desire  to  accom- 
plish. Soul  desire  urges  on  to  effort ;  the  more  intense  the  effort  the 
quicker  accumulates  the  soul  expectation  with  a  corresponding 
quick  success.  Thus  urge  brings  will  into  play,  and  will  may  be 
defined  as  the  ability  to  make  a  choice  and  adhere  to  it  though  the 
heavens  fall.  Such  an  ability  never  manifests  in  the  consciousness 
of  one  who  has  not  a  vision. 

These  universal  vibratory  waves  in  the  ether  are  operating 
always.  We  are  sending  them  out  and  responding  to  them,  and 
they  are  registering  in  the  consciousness  which  they  have  entered 


LESSON    NO.    6  61 

according  to  their  character.     Some  fit  the  eye  and  we  see  things ;  We 
others  the  ear,  and  we  hear;  still  others  the  nose,  the  touch;  others  Jj^^d^Xre 
register  only  in  the   form  of  vague   feelings  as  of  premonitions.    Infuenced: 
Practically  everybody  has  had  premonitions  of  unhappy  events, 
some  of  which  came  to  pass,  others  of  which  did  not.     Sometimes 
these  feelings  have  been  dismissed  as  having  no  significance  be- 
cause the  event  never  transpired,  but  whether  the  event  happened 
to  you  or  not  the  premonition  had  the  same  significance;  it  was  a 
thought   wave   to   which   your   consciousness   was   attuned,    which 
struck  you  on  its  road  to  someone  else,  to  whom  the  unhappy 
event  was  coming.    It  is  by  this  law  that  health  waves  are  just  as 
potent,  if  rot  more  so,  than  disease  waves.     And  so  we  come  to 
realize  the  value  of  concentrating  our  attention  upon  health,  hap- 
piness and  success  when  thinking  of  others,  rather  than  upon  the 
fears  of  disease  and  failure  for  them.    This  law  is  especially  oper- 
ative between  mothers  and  children,  as  there  is  especially  apt  to  ^^^g^j.^^. 
be  mental   rapport  between   them.     The   mother's   fears  tend   to  tive 
create  disease  in  the  body  of  her  child,  and  her  confident  mental  Influence: 
attitude  causes  a  healthy  atmosphere,  similar  to  sunshine  upon  a  „     h    1th- 
plant,  and  if  intensified  sufficiently  it  will  not  only  cure  disease, 
but  enable  the  child's  body  to  develop  and  mature. 

We  are  at  the  proper  place  to  discuss  the  law  operative  in  Absent 
absent  treatment.  Is  there  anything  in  it?  If  so,  how  much,  how  '^'"^^V 
far  have  we  been  able  to  make  it  dependable,  and  what  is  the  law? 
Yes,  Jthere  is  something  in  it.  It  is  the  play  of  consciousness  of 
one  individual  upon  another  producing  a  corresponding  vibratory 
action  of  his  energy,  with  a  corresponding  change  from  disease  to 
health.  Here  again  it  is  evident  that  the  strongest  mental  impres- 
sion rules,  and  that  a  substantial  impression  of  disease  of  long 
standing,  which  dominates  the  consciousness  of  the  patient,  must 
be  hammered  at  by  the  concentrated  mind  power  of  the  operator, 
until  it  finally  breaks  down  its  resistance.  The  receptivity  of  the 
patient  in  a  condition  of  relaxation  plus  passivity,  while  at  the 
same  time  the  operator  holds  a  crystallized  mental  picture  of  per- 
fect health  throughout  the  body  of  his  patient,  brings  quick  and 
evident  results.  If  the  patient  be  able  to  hold  a  positive  picture 
of  health  also,  the  results  will  be  more  rapid.  People  may  be 
treated  and  cured  by  this  means  without  their  conscious  knowledge  . 
of  having  ever  been  treated,  I  shall  not  attempt  in  this  brief  out- 
line to  handle  this  phase  of  the  subject  completely,  for  it  belongs 
primarily  to  the  professional  psychologist. 


62 


LESSON    NO.    6 


Psychic 
Phenom- 


Have  an 
Ideal: 
Be  Loyal 
To  It: 
But  Pro- 
gressively 
Improve  It; 


We  are  now  ready  for  a  brief  consideration  of  psychic  phe- 
nomena. Wherever  man  exists,  there  exists  also  psychic  phenom- 
ena. Reports  of  various  types  have  been  common  throughout  his- 
tory, and  must  have  been  equally  common  in  pre-historic  times. 
The  intellectual  world  of  recent  times  has  been  prone  to  accept 
such  reports  with  incredulity.  But  if  one  acquaint  himself  only 
with  the  records  of  the  past  twenty  years  of  experiments  of  the 
Psychic  Research  Society  of  this  country  and  Europe,  he  will  be- 
come convinced  that  there  is  something  back  of  it  all.  Personally, 
I  do  not  believe  in  delving  into  psychic  phenomena  until  one  has 
become  developed  to  the  point  where  he  can  govern  his  psychic  ex- 
periences. If  you  have  been  branching  out  into  the  psychic  realm, 
and  your  psychic  experiences  have  become  automatic,  sometimes 
desirable,  sometimes  undesirable,  and  their  chief  charm  is  their 
mystery,  you  had  better  give  it  up  altogether  for  a  time  and  take 
another  turn  at  living  strictly  in  the  external  world.  An  attempt 
at  the  psychic  experience  just  to  see  what  will  happen  has  a  tend- 
ency to  cause  the  vibrations  of  your  consciousness  to  sink  back  to 
the  level  of  the  oldest  and  best  established  phases  of  sub-conscious 
or  astral  existence.  In  other  words,  it  opens  the  door  of  your 
personality  to  the  entrance  of  undesirable  entities,  which  some- 
times results  in  "obsession".  Psychic  phenomena  should  always 
be  governed,  and  it  should  be  compelled  to  correspond  to  the  high- 
est ideals,  or  being  unable  to  accomplish  this  high  purpose,  we 
should  let  it  alone.  Deal  with  nothing  in  the  psychic  realm  which 
your  intellect  and  better  self  would  repudiate,  just  as  you  select 
your  dealings  and  associations  with  people  of  a  high  order  here. 

The  fundamental  requirement  for  governing  psychic  experi- 
ence is,  first,  SET  YOUR  STANDARD.  Tell  your  soul  what  you 
want  to  see,  what  kind  of  associates  you  want,  what  kind  of  knowl- 
edge you  want  to  get,  what  particulat*  thing  you  want  to  accom- 
plish, then  TRUST  that  your  soul  will  co-operate  with  you  and 
bring  your  desire  to  pass. 

This  phase  of  our  psychology  study  is  not  purely  philosophical 
but  this  law  has  been  and  is  being  worked  out  by  our  advanced 
students,  and  the  above  requirements  are  found  to  be  necessary. 
For  instance,  an  advanced  student,  a  good  concentrator,  with  a 
successful  record  back  of  him,  believes  in  his  ability  to  find  a  hid- 
den article.  A  co-worker  hides  a  pin  in  a  most  inconspicuous  spot 
in  a  room.  The  psychic,  blindfolded,  is  able  to  walk  straight 
toward  it  and  pick  it  up,  just  as  definitely  as  though  he  had  placed 


LESSON    NO.    6  63 

it  there  and  was  returning  with  his  eyes  wide  open  to  get  it  again. 
We  always  find,  however,  that  doubt  as  to  our  ability  to  conform  I 
to  the  Jaw  breaks  up  the  vibrations.  We  say  to  each  other, 
''Doubt  and  you  are  condemned  already."  And  ''according  to 
your  faith,  shall  it  be  done  unto  you,"  for  that  faith  added  to  the 
soul  desire  to  do,  opens  the  door  to  the  corresponding  vibration. 

It  is  an  accepted  conclusion  of  practically  all  advanced  stu-  The  Goal 
dents  along  this  line  that  the  viltimate  goal  of  human  attainment  Crossin^^  ^ 
shall  show  forth  the  characteristics  of  the  Christ  consciousness.  "The  Way" 
The  Christ  had  the  ability  to  prophesy.  It  seems  as  though  the  Thereto: 
law  by  which  this  is  accomplished  is  this :  Each  mind  acting  creates 
its  quota  of  the  sum  total  of  vibrations.  Each  mind  in  a  com- 
munity contributes  its  part  to  the  great  whole,  and  the  sum  total 
hovers  over  and  about  the  community  in  an  extremely  composite 
mental  picture.  In  other  words,  that  there  is  in  and  over  this 
community  right  now  a  complex  vibratory  cause,  which  if  it  could 
remain  unmodified  would  determine  the  sum  total  of  external 
events  of  tomorrow.  Some  of  our  students  have  been  able  to  look 
into  this  vibration  sphere  and  prophesy  events  in  the  near  future 
with  some  degree  of  accuracy.  But  it  has  always  been  evident  that 
the  sum  total  of  the  vibrations  can  be  and  is  modified  every  minute, 
so  that  your  destiny  is  never  set  and  sealed,  but  that  your  prob- 
lem as  a  personality  is  always  like  a  big  mathematical  problem. 
Given  a  sum  total  of  principles  the  mathematician  must  work  the 
problem  out  to  a  corresponding  conclusion,but  one  figure  inserted 
at  any  stage  of  its  solution  will  change  the  character  of  the  subse- 
quent steps  in  solution,  with  a  corresponding  change  in  result. .  It 
is  your  privilege  and  mine  to  interject  any  minute,  any  hour,  a 
new  principle,  and  change  the  sum  total  of  personality,  with  a 
corresponding  change  in  reaction  of  health  and  destiny,  and  the 
selection  of  mental  pictures  which  shall  dominate  your  consicious- 
ness  determines  always  the  character  of  the  change  in  personality. 

It  is  the  law  of  Nature  that  the  minds  of  individuals  shall  re- 
act upon  each  other.  Your  mind  is  influencing  mine,  and  my 
mind  influences  yours.  Each  of  us  has  a  definite  influence  upon 
the  consciousness  of  those  with  whom  we  come  in  contact,  and  each 
of  us  plays  our  part  in  determining  the  mental  atmosphere  of  the 
community  or  city  in  which  we  live.  The  supreme  law  is,  The 
strongest  becomes  the  dominating  personality;  strong  personalities 
influence  weaker  ones.  If  wisely  directed,  the  influence  is  for 
growth  and  development,  but  if  selfishly  directed,  the  reaction  is 


64 


LESSON    NO.    6 


Possible 
With 
All   Men: 
These  Are 
Present 
Possi- 
bilities : 


Prayer  or 
Aspira- 
tion: 


detrimental.  These  laws  are  operating  all  the  time,  whether  we 
are  conscious  of  them  or  not,  and  it  is  the  work  of  the  psychologist 
to  teach  the  people  how  volitionally  to  operate  the  law  so  that 
only  good  results  can  accrue.  We  are  teaching  you  nothing  new; 
it  is  as  old  as  creation.  We  are  handing  you  no  new  tool,  we  are 
giving  you  no  new  power;  we  are  simply  teaching  you  how  to 
direct  that  which  you  have  always  had. 

Our  ultimate  goal  of  attainment  shall  be  the  perfected  or 
super-man,  who  has  a  large  working  knowledge  of  law.  Such  per- 
fected man  will  remember  the  past,  completely,  definitely;  he  will 
live  keenly  and  harmoniously  in  the  present;  be  able  to  look  into 
the  future,  and  then  alter  the  principles  operating  his  life  until 
he  shall  avoid  accidents,  in  short  live  close  to  Nature  and  Nature's 
God.  Everything  which  the  Master  did  was  according  to  law;  a 
miracle  is  simply  the  operation  of  a  law  which  man  has  not  as  yet 
understood.  When  the  Master  prophesied  concerning  the  future, 
when  he  cured  disease,  when  he  walked  on  the  waters,  stilled  the 
winds  and  the  waves,  and  raised  the  dead, — when  he  hung  on  the 
cross,  left  his  physical  body,  raised  it  again  in  three  days  and 
walked  visibly  among  men  with  the  prints  of  the  nails  in  his  hands. 
He  did  all  these  things  by  virtue  of  a  working  knowledge  of  law. 
He  recognized  that  all  law  was  of  God,  His  Father,  and  He  always 
worked  in  harmony  with  His  Father's  will.  So  close  was  that 
harmony  that  He  said,  ''I  and  my  Father  are  one."  Again,  ''Of 
myself  I  can  do  nothing.  The  Father  within  me.  He  doeth  the 
work."  Psychology  is  today  demonstrating  that  the  fundamental 
tenets  of  religion  are  scientifically  correct. 

Just  a  word  about  prayer, — that  prayer  which  is  sufficiently 
powerful,  forceful,  to  heal  the  sick.  To  pray  successfully  you 
must  be  able  to  concentrate.  The  Master  condemned  word  prayers. 
Your  prayer  should  be  the  prayer  of  the  silence  wherein  there  is  an 
undisturbed  state  of  mind  with  no  counteracting  mental  disturb- 
ances, with  the  mind  concentrated  upon  God  or  Christ,  always 
keeping  in  mind  that  your  limited  consciousness  may  cause  you  to 
wish  things  to  happen  which  would  not  be  for  the  best,  and  being 
very  careful  to  ask  nothing  w^hich  is  out  of  harmony  with  natural 
law  or  God's  will.  Even  the  Master  said,  "Nevertheless  not  my 
will,  but  thine  be  done." 

Prayer  in  the  deeper  state  of  consciousness  will  give  you  a 
deeper  realization  of  your  own  inner  character  and  self  than  any- 
thing else.     You  meet  your  Christ,  your   God,   face  to  face.     If 


LESSON    NO.    6  65 

there  be  anything  unclean  in  your  mind  and  your  conscience  is 
not  clear,  at  a  certain  point  that  something  will  come  up  before 
you  and  stand  between  you  and  the  answer  to  your  prayer.  This 
principle  is  illustrated  in  Christ's  command  to  the  man  who  came 
with  his  sacrifice;  he  was  told  that  if  he  had  aught  against  his 
brother,  he  should  wait  to  offer  the  sacrifice  until  relations  with  his 
brother  had  been  rightly  adjusted.  Just  so  it  finally  comes  to  the 
realization  of  the  deeper  student  along  this  line  that  if  he  is  to 
enter  into  closer  relationship  with  his  God,  he  must  first  go  and 
square  up  affairs  with  his  higher  self  and  his  relations  with  the 
world.  At  this  point  we  begin  to  realize  the  importance  of  all 
thought,  the  day  dreams,  the  meditations,  knowing  well  their 
definite  physical,  mental,  moral,  psychic  and  spiritual  reaction. 
A  deeper  knowledge  of  applied  psychology  brings  a  deeper  realiza- 
tion of  the  necessity  of  the  everyday,  applied  religion,  wherein  Here  is 
all  one's  thoughts  and  meditations,  as  well  as  one's  dealings  with  "Harmony* 
the  world,  are  submitted  to  the  acid  test.  Is  it  right?  Is  it  just?  Means: 
Is  this  reaction  harmonious  from  every  angle?  In  short,  is  it  in 
harmony  with  natural  law,  the  visible  expression  of  Divine  Will? 

The  New  Testament  scriptures  are  full  of  records  of  psychic 
phenomena.  The  experience  of  John,  the  revelator,  was  psychic, 
when  he  said,  "I  was  in  the  spirit  on  the  Lord's  day,  and  I  heard 
a  voice  behind  me  as  of  a  trumpet,  saying" — his  experience  on 
the  Isle  of  Patmos."  Being  in  the  spirit  is  being  in  the  silence  or 
conscious  in  the  sub-conscious  realm.  The  experience  of  Paul  on 
the  road  of  Damascus  is  another  example  of  the  same  thing,  and 
the  vision  of  the  disciples  in  the  Blount  of  Transfiguration.  All 
these  are  phenomena  which  may  again  occur  on  the  threshold  of 
consciousness  to  the  Christian  who  earnestly  and  persistently  in- 
quires into  the  mysteries  of  the  spiritual  world,  providing  the  in- 
vestigation be  in  THE  FOOTSTEPS  OF  THE  MASTER.  But 
we  must  live  the  life;  it  must  be  clean,  pure,  holy,  a  clear  con- 
science ;  the  character  of  our  thoughts  must  conform  in  their  vibra- 
tions as  nearly  as  possible  to  those  of  the  Christlife,  and  must 
ultimately  be  raised  to  those  of  the  pure  white  light  of  the  spirit. 

Before  I  begin  a  brief  outline  of  requirements  for  developing 
the  spiritual  insight,  I  want  to  remind  you  of  a  universal  law 
which  applies  in  the  development  of  any  phase  of  personality. 
Several  statements  will  illustrate  it.  In  the  first  place,  concen- 
tration is  the  secret  of  success.  The  soul's  expectation  is  always 
realized.    The  law  of  the  sub-conscious  mind  is  suggestion,  nothing 


66 


LESSON    NO.    6 


More  more  and  nothing  less.     Set  your  standard.     Demand  of  your  sub- 

Than  the       conscious  mind  that  your  standard  be  fulfilled.     Obey  the  law  of 
Reading   of  its  fulfilment.     Expectation,  faith,  hope,  confidence,  to  the  point 


Many 
Books : 


Vision : 


where  the  last  shadow  of  doubt  is  eliminated,  and,  ''According  to 
your  faith  it  is  done  unto  you." 

So  many  times  students  lose  this  comprehension  and  continu- 
ally going  around  in  the  old  established  cycles,  wonder  why  they 
are  not  progressing.  The  major  portion  of  the  attention  is  too 
often  directed  to  the  consideration  of  the  failures  rather  than  the 
successes,  with  a  corresponding  discouragement  and  an  increas- 
ing tendency  to  conclude  that  if  the  law  operates  at  all  it  is  not 
for  them.  I  once  passed  through  this  stage  and  can  sympathize 
with  it.  I  appreciate  its  difficulties.  "When  I  awakened  to  the 
realization  that  the  Christ  consciousness  with  a  corresponding 
ability,  working  knowledge  of  law,  is  the  ultimate  goal  of  human 
attainment,  I  became  over-anxious  to  progress  along  this  line. 
Months  passed  by  and  although  I  was  ever  endeavoring,  it  seemed 
that  I  made  no  progress,  and  finally  I  found  myself  emotionally 
inquiring  as  to  the  cause  of  my  seemingly  repeated  failures. 

As  a  flash  of  light  one  day  it  dawned  upon  my  consciousness 
that  I  knew  the  law  whereby  I  could  find  out  anything  that  I 
needed  to  know,  and  why  was  I  not  using  it?  Immediately  I  gave 
my  soul  the  command  that  in  my  concentration  hour  today  I  shall 
have  shown  to  me  in  such  a  way  that  I  can  coil^prehend  it,  just  ex- 
actly the  things  that  are  standing  in  my  way  of  progress  and 
holding  me  back  and  down.  With  this  standard  before  me,  I  lay 
down,  relaxed,  became  passive  and  quiet,  receptive,  then  lost  con- 
sciousness. 

The  next  thing  I  realized,  I  was  standing  on  a  level  road 
which  wound  round  a  mountain  and  near  its  base.  I  paused  a 
moment  looking  about  to  get  my  bearings.  First  I  observed  the 
road.  It  was  smoothe,  had  been  well-leveled,  and  disappeared 
round  the  curve.  To  my  left  was  a  gentle  slope  of  well  kept  green 
grass,  whereon  many  women  and  children  were  playing  and  the 
atmosphere  told  me  that  they  were  merrymakers  on  a  holiday 
trip.  To  my  right  was  a  steep  mountain,  the  sides  almost  per- 
pendicular, so  high  I  could  not  see  its  summit.  Not  only  was  the 
mountain  so  steep  that  it  would  seem  impossible  for  an  individual 
to  climb  up  its  side,  but  there  were  jagged  rocks  sticking  out 
everywhere  and  thick  underbrush  and  brier  bushes.  Having 
sized  up  my  environment,  I  began  to  consider  why  I  was  here 


LESSON    NO.    6  67 

and  what  I  should  do.  I  finally  decided  that  the  most  pleasant 
thing  would  be  to  join  these  merrymakers  and  have  a  holiday  also. 
I  started  toward  them  and  with  the  first  step  I  heard  a  voice  be- 
hind me  and  above,  the  sweetest,  gentlest,  most  loving,  insistent 
voice  I  ever  heard,  and  the  words  were:  ''Follow  thou  me."  I 
was  startled. 

Then  I  remembered  suddenly  why  I  had  come  here  and  what 
it  was  that  I  wanted  to  know.  I  recognized  the  voice  of  my 
Master,  the  Christ.  I  wanted  to  obey  His  call,  and  my  first  im- 
pulse was  to  look  up  the  side  of  the  mountain  and  figure  ways  and 
means  of  scaling  its  seemingly  impassible  side.  I  gave  it  up  as 
hopeless  and  turned  my  attention  to  the  road  on  which  I  stood, 
figuring  that  possibly  this  road  might  lead  around  to  the  other 
side,  where  I  might  find  a  beaten  trail  to  the  summit.  I  now 
realize  that  just  so  is  our  first  impulse  to  choose  the  holiday  and 
merrymaking;  then  when  the  conscience  awakens  to  a  realization 
that  the  master  is  calling,  we  try  first  the  easy  beaten  path,  hoping 
to  find  a  trail  already  blazed  which  will  lead  us  home.  Just  so 
do  I  realize  that  it  seems  well  nigh  impossible  to  literally  follow 
the  Master's  commands.  I  followed  the  road  around  the  mountain 
side  and  finally  came  back  to  where  I  had  started.  By  this  time 
I  observed  that  this  section  of  the  road  was  a  portion  of  a  spiral, 
which  elevated  only  a  couple  of  feet  each  time  the  big  journey 
round  had  been  accomplished.  I  considered  the  enormous  dis- 
tance one  would  have  to  travel  to  gain  the  top  by  this  means.  I 
felt  its  hardships,  looked  again  at  the  merrymakers  on  the  other 
side,  saw  what  a  good  time  they  were  having,  decided  again  to 
join  them,  at  least  for  a  little  while.  But  with  my  first  step  to- 
ward them  again  I  heard  the  voice  and  the  command,  "Follow 
thou  me."  It  seemed  to  come  from  almost  over  my  head,  but 
so  far  away. 

This  time  I  determined  that  if  my  ]\Iaster  calls,  though  his 
call  leads  me  straight  up  that  mountain  side,  I  will  go.  I  searched 
for  a  place  to  wedge  in,  to  get  a  hold  for  my  hands  and  feet, 
gradually  and  laboriously  began  to  pull  my  way  up.  But  as  I 
started,  innumerable  black  veils  and  black  garments  were  thrown 
about  my  face  and  body,  which  made  it  impossible  for  me  to 
breathe  or  see.  In  my  struggle  up  so  steep  an  incline,  and  under 
such  adverse  conditions,  I  became  wearied,  lost  consciousness,  and 
when  I  awakened  I  found  myself  on  the  road  where  I  had  started. 
Dazed,  I  again  considered  my  surroundings,  my  conditions,  and 


U 


68  LESSON    NO.    6 

the  purpose  for  my  attempt  to  climb  the  mountain.  Again  I 
heard  the  voice  say,  "Follow  thou  me."  I  made  a  second  effort 
with  the  same  results:  the  veil,  the  garments,  the  weariness,  un- 
consciousness, awakening  to  find  myself  on  the  road  where  I  had 
started. 

In  visions  the  soul  takes  no  cognizance  of  time.  The  inner 
self  lives  in  the  Eternal  Now,  and  so  it  would  be  impossible  for 
me  to  determine  how  long  or  how  many  times  I  continued  this 
effort,  starting  up  the  mountain  side  in  response  to  the  call,  then 
finally  finding  myself  on  the  road  where  I  started. 

Each  time  it  seemed  that  I  had  made  no  progress  whatsoever. 
But  finally  I  observed  that  I  was  able  to  climb  farther  without 
fainting,  realized  that  I  was  making  more  rapid  progress  than 
before,  and  then  one  day,  I  found  myself  on  the  side  of  the  moun- 
tain, half  way  to  the  top,  and  the  atmosphere  about  me  seemed  as 
it  does  at  the  dawning  or  beginning  of  a  new  day.  I  was  able  to 
pause  now  in  my  effort  and  look  about  me,  and  as  I  did  I  found 
that  T  was  only  one  of  innumerable  people  like  myself,  who  were 
climbing  up  the  same  mountain.  Some  were  just  starting,  faint- 
ing, falling  back.  Others  were  as  far  as  I  and  able  to  salute  me 
as  I  paused;  others  were  lying  by  the  wayside  asleep;  while  still 
others  were  so  far  up  the  mountain  side,  and  were  traveling  so 
rapidly,  that  even  while  I  observed  them,  the^  went  out  of  sight. 
Away  down  yonder  below  was  the  roadside  from  which  I  had  so 
many  times  started  on  my  journey,  and  below  it  still,  were  the 
merrymakers  who  had  never  even  started,  nor  did  they  care  to 
leave  their  beautiful  surroundings.  I  looked  back  over  the  road 
which  I  had  travelled  so  many  times,  and  there  I  found  that  what 
had  seemed  as  I  looked  at  it  from  below,  to  be  almost  perpen- 
dicular, as  I  observed  it  from  above  after  having  gone  over  it, 
was  an  easy,  gentle  slope.  The  rocks,  the  bramble  bushes  and  the 
briers  had  all  been  worn  away,  so  many  times  had  I  travelled  over 
one  path.     But  it  was  now  worn  smooth. 

I  observed  along  the  way  innumerable  pieces  of  the  black 
garments  and  veils  which  had  been  torn  from  me  as  I  had  passed 
over  the  rough  way.  I  sauntered  back  over  the  road  and  observed 
that  upon  those  pieces  of  black  cloth  were  labels  in  white  letters. 
I  gathered  them  all  up,  and  read  the  label  on  each  one.  There 
were  so  many  that  I  could  not  carry  them  all  at  once,  and  as  I 
read  and  pondered  and  realized  the  meaning  of  those  labels  I 
found  on  them  everything  that  was  in  my  consciousness  which 


LESSON    NO.    6  69 

had  held  me  back  from  the  progress  which  I  had  thought  I  so  earn- 
estly desired  to  make.  I  now  know  that  those  labels  are  indica- 
tive of  the  race  consciousness  and  that  vision,  for  a  vision  it  was 
indeed,  gave  me  a  deeper  realization  of  why  we  are  where  we  are, 
than  I  could  ever  have  gaind  from  any  othr  source.  A  few  of  the 
most  common  indicated  various  kinds  of  doubts,  fears,  worries, 
anxieties,  greed  of  gain,  in  short,  there  was  a  bushel  basket,  which 
indicated  the  various  ways  in  which  we  rivet  our  attention  and 
undue  interest  and  intensity  over  temporal  things, — sensuousness, 
passion,  hatred,  discouragement,  disgusts,  disappointment;  in  fact, 
everything  which  rivets  the  attention  and  the  affection  upon  things 
temporal,  just  of  this  earth,  without  a  corresponding  realization 
of  their  insignificance, — these  are  the  things  which  make  the  road 
so  steep,  the  brier  bushes  so  sharp,  and  the  rocks  so  jagged.  These 
worn  down,  the  road  becomes  smoothe,  the  steepness  disappears, 
and  the  way  is  easy.  Since  that  vision,  I  know  what  is  required 
of  me  to  grow;  I  have  a  deeper  realization  which  enables  me  to 
appreciate  and  meet  the  needs  of  others.  I  have  a  keener  realiza- 
tion of  the  psychological  fact  that  we  have  a  tendency  to  become 
like  those  things  to  which  we  give  attention,  and  I  sympathize  with 
the  smart,  well-dressed  woman  who  only  last  week  said  it  was  im- 
possible for  her  to  study  or  grow  because  she  has  so  many  houses, 
so  many  tenants,  so  much  land,  such  heavy  taxes,  that  it  takes  all 
her  income,  thought  and  energy,  just  to  care  for  her  worldly  pos- 
sessions. I  know  what  the  young  man  must  have  experienced  when 
he  said,  "Master,  what  shall  I  do  to  inherit  the  kingdom  of 
heaven?"  when  he  heard  the  answer,  "Sell  all  thou  hast  and  give 
to  the  poor."  Yes,  he  went  away  sorrowful  because  he  had  large 
possessions. 

The  Master  used  to  walk  along  the  road,  make  his  choice,  ad- 
dress the  chosen  one  and  say,  ' '  Follow  thou  me. ' '  Some  laid  down 
their  nets  and  followed  without  a  word.  One  said,  "Lord,  I  will 
follow,  thee,  but  let  me  first  go  and  bid  farewell  to  them  which  are 
in  my  house."  And  Jesus  said  unto  him,  "No  man  having  put 
his  hand  to  the  plow  and  looking  back  is  fit  for  the  Kingdom  of 
God."  Another  agreed  to  follow,  but  requested  that  he  be  allowed 
to  attend  his  father's  funeral.  To  you  and  me  it  would  seem  a 
reasonable  request,  but  the  Master  said,  "Let  the  dead  bury  their 
dead ;  follow  thou  me. ' '  Once  he  said,  ' '  He  that  loveth  father  and 
mother  better  than  me  is  not  worthy  of  me."  "He  that  loveth 
son  or  daughter  more  than  me  is  not  worthy  of  me."    And  "He 


70  LESSON    NO.    6 

that  taketh  not  his  cross  and  follow  after  me  is  not  worthy  of 
me."  It  seems  to  me  now  that  the  road  toward  the  Christ-con- 
sciousness is  one  of  long,  hard,  continued,  service;  that  we  are 
expected  to  attempt  to  travel  that  road  and  keep  trying,  and  con- 
tinually trying,  knowing  that  though  we  fall  back  again  and  again 
to  where  we  started,  the  road  has  been  worn  smoother  because  we 
tried  and  it  will  be  easier  to  travel  next  time.  No  effort  is  ever 
lost.  The  results  are  constantly  accruing,  and  it  is  probably  some- 
thing like  the  quiet,  imperceptible  growth  of  the  plant,  the  bud, 
the  flower  and  then  the  fruit.  We  cannot  see  from  day  to  day  that 
the  plant  is  maturing;  but  we  know  that  if  the  requirements  of  its 
nature  are  met,  it  will  ultimately  bear  fruit.  Just  so  it  is  with 
human  personality  in  the  traveling  of  this  road,  which  the  Master 
spoke  of  to  his  disciples  when  he  said:  ''I  know  the  road  over 
which  I  have  come,  but  ye  know  it  not." 

The  Bible  makes  some  extreme  statements  about  the  useless- 
ness  of  the  possession  of  things,  and  the  psychologist  knows  that 
there  is  a  psychological  law  of  opulence,  of  unlimited  supply  and 
demand,  which  is  much  more  effective  when  operated  than  the 
hoarding  of  an  accumulation  for  a  rainy  day.  But  I  am  not  re- 
commending that  as  being  practical  for  any  of  my  students  in  our 
present  limited  realization.  We  do  not  take  the  colored  blocks  and 
play  things  away  from  the  kindergartner  until  he  graduates  into 
the  first  grade.  Even  then  he  may  need  them,  but  those  things 
will  have  long  since  lost  their  interest  when  the  child  has  reached 
maturity  and  is  graduating  from  college.  Everything  has  its  place 
and  serves  its  purpose.  Every  experience  teaches  its  lesson,  and 
furnishes  growth,  but  the  advanced  student  along  psychological 
lines  ultimately  comes  to  the  realization  that  soul  growth,  de- 
velopment and  unfoldment  is  the  ultimate  purpose  of  it  all;  that 
we  are  all  parts  of  one  body  with  Christ  as  our  leader,  and  there 
is  one  command  which  is  incumbent  upon  all  His  followers :  ' '  Love 
one  another."  ''Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  ''Do  unto  others 
as  you  would  have  others  do  unto  you."  This  is  the  supreme  law, 
both  for  personal  and  race  development. 


oiiiuur 

Gaylord  Bros.,  Inc 

Makers 
Stockton,  Calif. 

PAT.  JAN.  21.  1908 


YC    15947 


886584 


THE  UNIVERSITY  Or-CALlFORfflA  UBR^RY 


